


Summer In Neptune

by btvsp2082



Series: Between Seacrest and Revello [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-06
Updated: 2014-09-06
Packaged: 2018-02-16 09:19:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 34,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2264277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/btvsp2082/pseuds/btvsp2082
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takes place between S2 and S3 of BtVS, and between S1 and S2 of VM. Buffy runs away from Sunnydale and goes to the first place she called home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> This is me mashing up my two of my favorite shows.
> 
> Some dialogue is occasionally reproduced, as is dialogue from the movie, “BASEketball.” 
> 
> For the sake of this crossover, I needed to sync up the individual timelines, so BtVS begins in 2003 instead of 1997.
> 
> I own nothing. Hope you enjoy. :-)

At 2:52 AM, a knock sounded on Veronica Mars' apartment door, waking her from a dream involving Lilly and a swimming pool. Closure through slumber. It happened.

Would the media circus begin this early? She got out of bed to discover. It couldn't be her father; he was still in the hospital, Wallace's mother at his side. It wouldn't be Duncan; he went with his software mogul father to the station. There was a chance it could be Wallace, which would be sweet of him, but really, she held out hope it was Logan. She needed to know he was all right.

But when she opened the door, it most definitely was not her troubled (ex?) boyfriend standing on the other side.

"Oh my god. Buffy?"

"Hey, Marsipan," greeted a desperate-looking Buffy Summers. "I'm sorry it's...really late, isn't it?" she said apologetically. "But the radio--"

"What the hell are you thinking?" Veronica asked, and then did something she didn't do very at all--hugged her fellow, petite blonde. "If I’d been given the once-in-a-lifetime chance to tap out of Neptune's chokehold, my throat would never be at risk again. Knowing you got free, I almost believed in miracles."

"Wow. You didn't used to think it was _that_ bad," smirked Buffy, hugging her back. "But...things change, I guess."

After a beat, both laughed at the enormity of that understatement. They separated as their laughter grew in intensity, hit its peak, then slowly died. It was a welcome release.

"Okaaay...on that note," spoke the teen PI after a deep breath, "let me show ya around the new, slightly more compact, digs."

 

________

 

"And here we are back at our lovely, kitchen/living _and_ dining room combo," Veronica announced as they exited the small hallway, having just come from her bedroom. "Exciting, no? Dad and I perfected designing on a dime...with cero ayuda from Cable, thank you very much."

She sat on the couch, Buffy following suit and commenting, "Upside--least you're not homeless."

"Like you?" Veronica filled in what she perceived to be the blanks. "If I’m wrong? One, that never gets out. Two, it’s only because being almost burned alive is throwing me off my game."

"You're not off," sighed Buffy. "I kinda ran away." Then Veronica's words registered. "'Burned alive'?"

The radio had left that detail out.

"'Ran away'?" Veronica questioned back just when there was another knock.

This time? Logan Echolls was at the door.

 

________

 

"This could be the concussion," Logan prefaced, lying prone on the couch, head in his maybe girlfriend's lap, "but it's hard to miss that B.S. smell. You should let your apartment air out."

Veronica rolled her eyes. "Yeah, hasn't gotten any funnier since 7th grade."

"Or gotten lame any less," Buffy added, even if it was obvious.

This was the first time Logan appeared to notice the slayer. She'd stood out of the way for the most part, hearing him recount to Veronica how he'd knocked out Weevil on the bridge where his mother committed suicide, bringing the wrath of the PCH bike gang (that Weevil led), down on himself. He was beaten unconscious, and when he came to, he had a bloody knife in his hand, and one of the bikers lay dead.

There'd been someone there, some bystander who called the cops. Logan tossed the knife into the water and came straight to Veronica. On the way, he heard what Buffy did--his father, movie star Aaron Echolls, was charged with the murder of Lilly Kane, as well as the attempted murder of once sheriff Keith Mars, and his teenage daughter.

Logan was claiming not to have killed anybody, and in a similar situation herself, Buffy felt inclined to believe him. But when did he and Veronica...?

"Wait...this isn’t junior high?" Logan asked, faux-surprised. "When my dad wasn't screwing our best friend or bashing in her skull? And you hadn't left town? Without even going near her funeral?"

That stung as he knew it would, and Buffy hung her head.

"Bummer, huh, Summers?" Underneath his bitter sarcasm, he was clearly hurting. "Here’s the best part. Back then, Veronica wasn’t drugged, and almost...” Sarcasm gave way to remorse. “Can thank yours truly for that."

Buffy’s head had shot up, and when Veronica met her eyes she mouthed, _"He drugged you?"_

Veronica looked down at the hurt, angry young man using her as a pillow. "Logan..."

The latest knock of the pre-dawn hours seemed loud in the apartment right then. She was getting annoyed. "Geez, where's Monty Hall when you need him?"

Eight minutes later, Deputy Leo D’Amato, the third man who'd dared to fall for her charms and got burned for his trouble, was putting a handcuffed Logan in the back of his Crown Vic. Veronica didn't see any of this, however. She remained in her apartment, too confused and exhausted to do anything else. She and Buffy sat in a bit of awkward silence, until Buffy broke the tension.

"So...you obviously got over Duncan," she commented lightly, having noted the way the young, handsome, Greek-Italian deputy talked to her. "Exactly how many guys have you dated while I've been not here?"

 

________

 

"The traditional reaction when cleared of a major felony? Falls anywhere in 'ecstatic's' ballpark," Veronica told a not-so-relieved Buffy a half an hour later, sitting at her bedroom’s desk, in front of her laptop. "Some might even try to reach that magical kingdom where innocent, unsuspecting wallets find ‘Deliverance.’ From a giant, freaking rodent. Oh how they squeal."

She heard nothing but silence. "Right...I think it’s all starting to come back. Is someone still traumatized by what was _really_ under the sea on her favorite, childhood VHS?"

Buffy looked over her shoulder at the screen, while petting Backup, the Mars family dog. "Are you sure you're reading it right?"

"Which one of us was 'Spelling Bee' champ five-years running in elementary school?" Veronica asked rhetorically, tooting her own horn as she held up her hand. "That's right, folks."

She sighed in exasperation. "Buffy, trust me. I learned how to crack police report code a long time ago."

She whipped out her (dad's) "Mars Investigations" business card, and passed it behind her.

"This is how I make my bread these days,” she said, then read the contents of her screen. "Three witnesses--uh, 'Rupert Giles,' 'Alexander Harris,' and 'Willow Rosenberg'--all told the cops the same story. That you were nowhere near the scene at the time of the murder. Instead, the fingered guilty party was...an addict on PCP, who broke into Sunnydale High School with a gang. All of whom were...also apparently on PCP."

Veronica's eyebrows arched as she continued to search.

Considering that Logan had admitted he was wanted for murder, Buffy quickly figured, “What the hell?” Besides, her attempt to act casual when Leo entered the apartment was seen through by everyone present. She had to come clean, or Veronica would've simply gotten her to spill.

Once it was out of the bag, Veronica went straight to work seeing if there was indeed an APB, prepared to help clear Buffy’s name. Yet she didn't seem so gung ho to believe in Logan's innocence.

Her friend was certainly different. Tough. A little hardened. Like Buffy herself.

"I hafta be not in Sunnydale, Veronica. People got hurt 'cause of me. My friends, my mom...can't face them. Except my excuse for hiding doesn’t actually exist now."

"Wanna talk about it?" Veronica offered gently, rousing long-atrophied skills to do so.

Buffy put that question back to her. "Do you wanna talk about your year?"

"Before these eyes get some shut? Let me answer that with..." Veronica yawned, which was perfect timing. "Are you staying anywhere?"

"Been at the Camelot for two days," said Buffy, cringing.

Veronica matched her cringe and then some. "You're joking."

Buffy was not. It took every ounce of self control for her to avoid throwing up every time she walked into her motel room--there were stains.

"Well, all them fine fellas doing the 'Walk of Shame' to their cars in about five minutes are gonna be awful disappointed when they don't have you to eye-pluck," smirked Veronica. "Crash here--I insist."

Buffy smiled. "Your dad won't mind?"

Veronica made a "pshaw" sound. "Only when we lie. And there's an entire seven days before that’s gotta happen."

Keith would be discharged from the hospital then.

"Plenty of time to think one up one that'll make him proud. Sell it, we buy you a two, possibly three-day window. Then he calls your mom, and I'm grounded ‘til college. Which might just be the perfect way to survive next year." She didn’t much like high school.

Buffy's smile had weakened a bit upon mention of her mother being called.

Veronica got out of her chair, and headed for the hall. "I'll get you a pillow and some blankets...we can pretend it's a slumber party. Unless you want the couch."

Buffy shook her head, "I miss slumber parties."

"Yeah," Veronica smiled softly, memory lane calling, "me too. Be right back."

Soon she was friends with her bed again, and Buffy was lying on the floor, Backup at her feet. Veronica tried to fall asleep, but she had to know; it was nagging at her, wouldn't let her rest. All those files on PCP gangs and the related deaths...

"So either Sunnydale isn't saying 'No' to drugs just to spite Nancy Reagan, or--"

"It's vampires."

Several moments of quiet breathing--

"Had a feeling you were gonna say that."

Some stops on memory lane they weren't proud of, and each girl dozed off thinking about them.


	2. Two

It was sometime in the afternoon when Veronica's cell phone roused her with Salt'N'Peppa's, "Push It." Below her, Buffy giggled groggily (and soon enough uncontrollably) at the music. Groaning, Veronica grabbed the phone off the bedside night table, and answered it.

#'Bout time you picked up, V.# Wallace Fennel said on the other end.

"Wallace? Pal'o'mine, B.F.F, brother-in-arms against a cruel and unjust world? It's because we’re so close that you're even receiving advance warning--sometime very soon, I will shave you bald, and then watch as you eat your own ‘rows. With a smile."

#...Woke you, didn't I?#

"What gave it away?" Veronica wondered sarcastically. "Yes, the plan was three solid days of deep, _deep_ REMs--which would have been a better music choice, by the way--but that’s kind of been shot to hell."

#Sorry, just told your dad I'd check on you, 'cause my mom ain't lettin' him move a muscle. Not even for a phone call to his baby girl. And what's wrong with a couple of "old school" sistas layin' it down?#

Veronica slowly broke into a wide smile. "I have total respect for the beats of _all_ 'old schoolers,' you should know that by now."

He laughed.

"But if I've told you once, I've told you a million times, it's 'Shoop' or nothing." She paused to exhale. "I suppose, since it was a parental decree, that means you're off the hook. Skin of your teeth though, Fennel, skin of your teeth."

#Got a generous heart, Veronica Mars. Anybody ever tell you that?#

"No, you're probably the first," she grinned. "Listen, can you tell my dad I'll stop by in a little while and have a late lunch/early dinner with him? I'm entertaining a guest at the moment, and we have errands to run."

#What kinda guest?# he asked, and she could practically hear his teenaged, male brain thinking thoughts of the naughty.

"Not the kind you’re thinking." She rolled her eyes. "Still, mum's the word until further notice. Remember, 'lying' isn't the same as 'withholding,' so hold strong, Black Stallion."

When she hung up, she leaned over to see Buffy still giggling, but muffling it with her pillow. Veronica threw hers at the slayer.

"Shut up."

  

________

 

Buffy threw her duffel bag of clothes and Mr. Gordo into the trunk of Veronica's green LeBaron. It was parked in the Camelot's lot. She shut the trunk, and got in the passenger side. Veronica was already behind the wheel.

"Cool, that everything?" Veronica asked before she pulled away. "Because seeing inside during the harsh light of day is like 'Scared Straight' for hos. I really have no desire to come back ever again."

"Yep," Buffy nodded, reaching into her pocket. "Unless you think I should give this back."

Veronica glanced over at the torn page Buffy showed her.

"Ripped it outta the phonebook at the front desk. S'how I tracked you down."

Veronica was impressed. Her hazel-eyed friend had some sleuthing ability. "You always were a better Girl Scout than I was," she smirked, reversing the car. "But I'm afraid we're already on the move. You're just gonna hafta eat the evidence."

Buffy nearly laughed, but Veronica’s face discouraged this.

"Seriously. Lamb's fined senior citizens for less."

Buffy balked at this tidbit. "No way can he still be sheriff."

Veronica looked both ways before turning onto the street, and tried to suppress the angry tick she’d developed whenever Lamb was a topic of conversation.

"Don't get me started." At the red light, impatiently tapping her fingers on the wheel, she said, "Am I the only one who needs coffee?"

"I could get us free ones," spoke Buffy offhandedly. "Legally, even."

"Ooh, free _and_ legal? Tell me more of this fairytale."

 

________

_~Last Week of September, 2003~_

_"You wanted me to tell you the truth, and even though a gigantically-ancient rule says not to, I still did. Because you're my best friend," a fifteen-year-old Buffy said, pacing her bedroom and running her hands over her face. "Why would I make_ this _up, Veronica? God, believe me, I so wish I was."_

_Veronica had just seen the top drawer of her friend's vanity. It was filled with stakes, crosses, and holy water bottles. She backed away and sat on the mattress, head spinning. Two weeks ago, they'd been making Spirit Boxes and everything was normal. That's what she'd thought, anyhow._

_Now things were bad. Beyond Duncan Kane having broken up with her._

_"Have I ever been religious?" Buffy asked her, to which Veronica shook her head. "Then why would I have those? Why can I lift up the back of my dad's Lexus with one hand? How did I catch Shelly Pomeroy's heel before it hit Dick in the back of the head during lunch that time?"_

_"I-I dunno," was the best Veronica could come up with._

_"And I don't know how else to say I’m a freak who was ‘chosen’ to kill already dead guys ‘til she’s dead too!"_

_Buffy knelt in front of Veronica, eyes starting to water. "Everyone else can think I'm nuts as long as you don't. Please, Marsipan. We've known each other forever."_

_It was just...it was crazy. Rationally impossible. Yet Buffy had never not told her the truth when she asked for it._

_There was too much pressure._

_Veronica stood up and put some distance between them. "I really wasn't...I was expecting you to say you've been taking drugs or steroids or something. Like when Andrea Decker got addicted to Speed last year studying for finals."_

_Any hope Buffy held began to deflate._

_"That way I'd have something to tell Lilly, and once you got out of detox--"_

_"Like I care about not being in Lilly's orbit anymore," Buffy brushed that aside, an edge to her tone. "She's been looking for any excuse to cut me out since we hit high school and she went all diva."_

_"That's not true," Veronica objected, who was rather naïve for a sixteen-year-old._

_"You know it is. She's always been jealous that we've been closer longer; she just didn't wanna piss you off," Buffy argued, picking up Mr. Gordo off her pillow and holding him tight._

_It wasn't her fault Lianne Mars and Celeste Kane couldn't stand one another long enough to let their daughters have play dates ten years ago._

_"But I'm the ugly duck now, and if she doesn't dump me, she looks bad. That's how it works. Clemmons is going to," she knew. "My mom's fighting it, but he hasta expel me. Can't have an arsonist for a student. His gym might be next."_

_Yeah, just Mom fighting for her. She was the straw that broke her parents' backs. Joyce and Hank Summers had officially separated last week, and when her dad left Neptune, he took the '09er lifestyle along with him. This town was practically screaming she wasn't wanted._

_Veronica’s eyes shone with a mix of sadness and fear. "Did you really do it? Burn down that school's gym in LA?"_

_Buffy closed her eyes and sighed. "Had to. It was full of vampires."_

_"Okay," Veronica was going to try this, "if vampires are real, how come there aren't any in Neptune?"_

_"Because Neptune’s a small town and not on a Hellmouth? Maybe they’d run out of people to bite too fast," Buffy shrugged. "They love L.A., though. That’s why I had to constantly lie to my parents and--“_

_Veronica interrupted with a knitted brow, "What's a Hellmouth?"_

_"No idea. My...my 'Watcher',” Buffy had held that man while he died, “said it's some mystical hoozit...that attracts evil things."_

_She could see Veronica was even less convinced than before, and coupled with the horrors she'd seen recently, it made her want to cry._

 

________

 

"I should have known better," Veronica apologized to Buffy in the back corner of Java the Hut as they drank lattes free of charge. “And so, I beg forgiveness--you spoke true, my friend…you spoke true.”

In the back of her mind, she wondered if Logan was out on bail yet.

"The caffeine high just feels purer, don't you think? All upper and nary a trace of downer. Plus, the adrenaline rush?"

"Rushes to the max." They echoed the same thought aloud, and chuckled.

Rough-edged, kick ass, independent females they might've become, but they were also still dorks. Especially together.

"I’m serious," Buffy continued their previous conversation, "you oughta get a job here. I'd try to help, but I only started yesterday. My pull's zero. And me missing my shift hasta be making it less than." She looked ashamed. "But the manager's nice."

"Hey, if sampling product is a perk, that's all the incentive I need." Veronica was in no way opposed to the idea. "He'd never go this far aloud, but Dad would love if I became one with the Pod People and conformed."

"Oh yeah. My mom, too," agreed Buffy.

That surprised Veronica. "She knows about...?"

Buffy cast her eyes downward. "Hence the 'homeless.’"

Veronica's heart broke for the girl across from her, whose hand she took in hers. "Last night’s offer? Still on the table."

Buffy looked up again, staring her friend right in the eyes. "What's gonna make it any different than last time?"

"For starters? Saw your neck last night. And since I can't work out why you'd stab yourself with a barbeque fork voluntarily, that leaves a single conclusion worth jumping to. Lot more open-minded than I used to be."

Veronica squeezed her hand now. "If hindsight's taught me anything, it's that you're the one person from this town I should've believed without question. I don't squander second chances. Ask anyone."

You know what? Buffy believed her. Flashing half a smile, she pushed aside her cup and decided where to begin.

"Well, the bite was from this 600 year-old vampire who drowned me, but that isn’t even close to--"

"’Scuse? _Drowned_?"

"Ssh!" Buffy admonished. "No squandering."

Never again--she had a rapt audience.


	3. Three

"I know what you're thinking," Veronica told her smiling father as she walked into his hospital room. "She just strolled into the gift shop and purchased that same bear with the 'Get Well' balloon hearts in his paw every daughter gives her recovering, hero father." 

She held up the plastic bag in her left hand. In her right, she bore the delicacies of Roy Rogers. Then she sat in the chair beside his bed, put the bag on the floor, and put the food on the small, swivel tray attached to the bed.

"Actually, given the quality of the gene pool that spawned you--which is pretty impressive just from the Y end alone--the bar's been set kinda high," Keith said, his face awash with male pride.

"Done puffin' up your chest there, Simba, or do I need to lure a gazelle into this Circle of Life so you can maul it?" Veronica smirked. "And how come I'm imagining my birth as an event not unlike crawling out of the Black Lagoon?" Beat. "Mental scar #572? Cataloged."

Keith ignored all this, and stated in his best “lion kingly” voice, "You may wow me now."

For a second, she stared at him like maybe he'd bribed a nurse for morphine.

"All right," she reached her hand into the bag, "while I _am_ aware 'They' say you shouldn't feed people's addictions, I'm officially making your case an exception to the rule. If 'They' don't like it, 'They' can bitch to my LJ."

She pulled out a "Neptune Sharks" mascot bobble-head. Manny the Shark carried a bat and wore a baseball uniform. The front of which said, "YOU'LL BE...", while the back of which said, "...OFF THE DL IN NO TIME!"

"Viola!" she proclaimed proudly, giving it to him. "Do I know how to leave my laughable competition weeping shamefully in the muck or what?"

She spit on those less thoughtful daughters. Spit.

"Words cannot express how I feel at this moment." Her father held the object with reverence. "Thank you, honey."

"Welcome, Pop." She got up and kissed his forehead, then snatched the control that raised and lowered his bed before he knew what was happening. "Bed goes up..."

She pushed a button, and the top half of the bed angled, sitting Keith up so he could eat. About to push "Down" when he glared warningly, she sheepishly handed back the controls and turned her attention to getting his burger.

"So how’re you doing? You don’t seem singed above the second degree; that's a big thumbs up."

He accepted his food, assuring, "Thanks to my quick-thinking cub-child from the Black Lagoon, the jacket got the worst of it."

Her smile was bashful and warm. "Eh, wasn't your most flattering shade, anyway."

But as she grabbed her chicken nuggets, there was something she didn't understand. "Then why are they trapping you here so long?"

"Lamb's trying to keep me from the media as long as possible." His expression read, "Why else?" as he unwrapped his burger and took a bite. "He wants his own spin out there first...so it’ll look like he had a hand in bringing Aaron down."

She coughed out, "Jackass."

"Careful...always told you you'd choke if you ate too fast." Keith tried to maintain a straight face, and ate some more to occupy his mouth. "Did you see Alicia and Wallace in the cafeteria?"

"Uh huh," she said, mouth full.

"And did you remember to say hello?"

Swallowing, she laid a hand on her chest, offended. "Gasp. Are you suggesting I'm anything other than demure and courteous with my fellow homo sapiens? 'Cause that calls _your_ parenting techniques into question, ya know."

"Who's suggesting?" he innocently denied. "I was merely wondering whether you might've been too preoccupied, because you might have something on your mind, that's all."

Uh oh. She sensed danger approaching.

"Like, for instance, maybe an old friend's come back into town recently. Or, y'know, whatever," he continued.

Caught off guard, her face betrayed her instantly.

"Appreciate the confirmation, sweetheart."

"Curses!" she gritted melodramatically.

Laid up, and he was still ten steps ahead.

________

It was just after ten at night when Veronica and Buffy entered "Mars Investigations." After they exchanged war stories at the Hut, trying to one-up the other's emotional traumas, guilt forced Buffy to make up the early shift she'd missed, while Veronica went to the hospital. She swung by to get Buffy fifteen minutes ago, telling her the news on the way.

"He just knew?" Buffy was anxious. She still wasn't clear on what would happen from this point.

"No, he's marathoned 'Minority Report' one time too many, and therefore, likes to pretend he's an all-knowing pre-cog. But you've gotta hand it to him--does give a surprisingly convincing first impression," replied Veronica, leading them into her dad's office.

"But weren't the pre-cogs basically like prisoners? Living in a vat of something ew?" Buffy pointed out as Veronica sat behind the desk and booted the computer. "Plus, Tom Cruise."

"All valid points, which I _have_ brought to his attention. Repeatedly, and with little effect whatsoever. The 'blissful ignorance' just has to run its course." Veronica double clicked on the email client. "Who am I to crush his quaint, boyish dreams of omnipotence and power?"

She put in Terrence Cook's batting average and RBI percentage from his rookie season as the password to her father’s account, then searched through the inbox to find the first message from JSummers@sungallery.net.

"Here's the skinny. Your mom emailed my dad pretty soon after you left; she thought you might come here, asked him to be on the lookout," she explained. "We’ve sorta had a packed queue, so he couldn't exactly spare his full, 20/20 private eye, but he tried a blind stab at the hospital. It's my fault he knows."

"It's okay, Veronica. If I'd been in your shoes, I would've given me away, too. Which I could pull off, 'cause we're the same size." Buffy tried to relieve her of any culpability, seeing the pained, "puppy dog" look. "Still, kinda am resisting the urge to hair-pull and call you 'Martian Mars-y McFartsy.'"

Veronica's eyes narrowed as she rose out of the chair. "Dad said there's another email for your eyes only," she walked out from behind the desk, "so while you do that, I'll just be getting the Taser out of my glove compartment...Barfy Dumbers!"

She stuck her tongue out at her friend, before exiting and shutting the office door behind her.

"Hey, I said 'resisting'!" Buffy called after.

With reluctance and trepidation, she sat behind the desk.

 

________

 

"Hi sweetheart,

 

"I really hope you're seeing this, because it means you're with Mr. Mars, and you're okay. I realize I said some awful things (that I want to take back more than anything), and handled things badly. I know you’re probably angry, but please, keep reading?

"I just got back from having coffee with Mr. Giles. I know about who you are, what you've had to do. I saw it with my own eyes, and if I keep pretending I didn't, then I'll just drive you further away. You were telling the truth, Buffy, and I'm so sorry for all the times I only made it harder on you.

“You’re my daughter. I love you. I need you to know that.

"Even though I understand it was to protect me, it makes me so angry that he had you keep secrets, that he's known you better than I have. I don't know if I can forgive him for that.

"But he did promise he wouldn't stop until he finds you. So if you are in Neptune, let us know so we can stop worrying?

"Oh, and speaking of men who make me angry, Mr. Snyder called to say you were expelled because of what the police think you did to that poor girl (your friends are going to explain everything, don’t worry). Once he knows you didn't, he'll have to let you back into school.

"I’m not sure what else to say, except, we want you home. Willow, Xander, Cordelia, and Mr. Giles all wanted me to tell you that it wasn't your fault. They don't want you to blame yourself. Everyone's fine. But if you need time away, take it.

"Mr. Mars is going to let you stay with him and Veronica for the summer. He said they'd be happy to have you, and that Veronica's really missed you. I'm not surprised -- the two of you were practically joined at the hip when we lived there. It sounds like she's had a rough year, too.

“Don't ever think I'd do what Veronica's mother did. I never would, sweetie. Ever.

"If you stay, remember to thank them, and have fun. Forget about being a slayer for a little while, and just be you. When you get back, we'll start over. I promise. But please call. Can't wait to hear your voice.

 

"Love, Mom"

 

________

 

"Yeah, no idea what you just said," Buffy said to Mac later at Wallace's house. "But I have a friend back in Sunnydale who would've loved every one of those words."

"It's cool, I'm used to it," Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie replied, grinning.

She never expected her to really understand the benefits of OS X over XP Service Pack 2, but she felt the need to try and convert anyone new.

"Just make sure the next computer you buy has an apple on the box. You'll thank me later."

Buffy nodded. "I’m doubtless."

Veronica wanted her oldest best friend to meet her newest, and since Wallace had the biggest TV _and_ a satellite dish, his home got voted, "Late Night Summer Party Central." Whether he actually had a vote was up for debate, but she saw this as his way of graciously making this morning up to her.

They were without parental supervision, as Mrs. Fennel was rooming with her father again tonight. Rooming platonically. At least, that's what she and Wallace told themselves, because the alternative was not to be entertained.

Wallace was putting some "movie trivia" DVD game on, which she was thankful for, because the TV went right to Extra. Their top story? "Did Aaron Echolls Pass 'Murder Gene' to Teenage Son?" That son was back at his father's estate.

Did she go see him tomorrow? Did she play the supportive girlfriend? She knew she owed him for jumping the gun (twice) and hurting him. She wanted to believe the best, yet it seemed like she always thought the worst.

What did it say when she was more ready to believe that Buffy was a superhero who battled monsters (and occasionally had soul-losing sex with them), rather than believe Logan was framed? She had no idea. Honestly.

But she did believe Buffy, trusted her...had witnessed real superpowers being used. Except believing in her friend was different than believing in monsters.

No, she wasn't being thickheaded. Seeing was believing, and she hadn't seen monsters. Nor did she have tangible evidence. She couldn't help being wired the way she was.

Which was maybe why she couldn't completely believe Logan. She needed proof he didn't do it, and being Veronica Mars, that meant she would have to dig it up.

"Crap," she exhaled at this realization.

"You all right, Veronica?" Wallace asked, setting up the game with the remote.

"What?" She hadn't wanted people to hear that. "Oh. Mmhmm.  Except for the friggin' Tourette's. I'm hoping it burns itself ass.” Beat. “Burns itself _out_. _Out_."

"Uh, good luck with that," Mac slowly encouraged.

Buffy knew she had Logan on the brain, and Veronica knew Buffy knew, so it was time to focus and get into the spirit of the evening.

"I say we three P.Y.T's team up against the Neptune High Pirates' very own baller god. He's their meal ticket, their clutch, their golden boy. Why, he's already a legend in his own time."

She watched Wallace's grin get wider and wider, then, "When's Caz Truman supposed to get here again?"

His grin went into freefall. "That was cold."

"But you hafta admire the timing," Mac conceded.

"Sorry, Wallace...you really do," Buffy shrugged, and he just shook his head while she finally noticed Mac's T-shirt. "You like 'Dingoes'?"

"Yeah, I saw them at the Pit last year. They could only play like three chords, but they were pretty decent," critiqued Mac. "Why?"

"My friend? Her boyfriend's the guitarist."

"You mean Oz? Dude, that's awesome." Mac suddenly wanted to possess this fellow computer-master's guy-attracting mojo. "I think they're coming back to play over Fourth of July weekend."

"Say...your friends oughta hitch with the Band-Aids," Veronica suggested. "My posse, meeting your posse...we could so have a rumble."

"That's a great idea." Buffy wondered why she hadn't thought of it. "Maybe not the 'rumble' part. Too 'West Side Story.'"

"Which would be the point. I call 'Sharks.'"

"Hold up," Wallace interjected, still miffed. "I ain't part'a no one's posse."  

"But I already bought you a shirt!" Veronica complained. "I was gonna design custom iron-ons and everything!"

He was fighting his face muscles hard.

"C'mon, Wallace, you know you wanna."

After a few seconds, a smile broke out.

"Ah, there's that ray of sunshine."

"Can we just play the game now, please?" he asked hopefully. "I need to get down to business and whoop you all, get some of my pride back."

"Play the first couple without me? I need to make a call." After announcing that, Buffy looked around for the how.

Veronica took her cell from her back pocket. "Here, use mine."

Buffy smiled. "Thanks."

"Anytime. Dumbers."

She went to Wallace's front porch and dialed. While it was ringing, she heard Mac ask, "Isn't 'pride' a sin?"

"Not tonight," Wallace answered back.

Buffy finally heard a “Hello” on the other end and smiled again. "Hey, Will...Yep, it's me...Really...Yeah, I called her earlier...Me too...How you feeling?...Good, I'm glad..."

She sat down in one of the porch’s chairs.

"I'm in Neptune...Nope, definitely the town. It's up the PCH..."

 

________

While news reporters of TV and paper shouted behind the gate, Veronica waited somewhat impatiently at Logan's front door the next day. What was she doing here? The right thing, she hoped. And who should answer the door? Dick Casablancas, of course.

"Yo, Logan, you order a hooker?" he jibed with a smirk.

Veronica just smiled tightly, because some cameraman had probably climbed the gate and was hiding in the bushes. "Might wanna think about getting a new shtick, Dick."

His eyes went immediately to his crotch. "What? Who said...?"

And the universe got dumber.

But she went with it. "Do we ever know who starts those small balls of rumor rolling? My advice? Pay them no mind...even if they get a little blue."

Cassidy Casablancas emerged from inside, pushing past his older brother. "Let's go, Dick."

"Hi, Cassidy," Veronica greeted kindly.

It was hard to believe the two were related.

"Hey, Veronica," he shyly returned.

Dick ignored his sibling. "Hey, is that 'Buffy' chick seriously around somewhere? 'Cause, _damn_. ‘Til she went nuts and turned ‘pyro,’ she kinda had an intense obsession with the Kid.” He pointed at himself. “She was like this force, y’know? But, uh, not the gay one those Jedi guys use when they cross swords--”

“Sabers. Cross sabers,” interjected Veronica pointlessly on behalf of pop culture geeks everywhere.

“--or whatever. No, she was like, a Sex force. Pulling me in deeper and deeper."

"Huh," Veronica’s arms crossed over her chest as she cocked her head to the side in wonderment. "She must've played it real close to the vest."

"Right? But her bringing down that shoe that time? Before it almost lodged into my brain? Yeah, she so wanted me to tap that."

Veronica and Cassidy were thinking that perhaps a shoe in his skull would be an improvement.

"Got the message, though. Duncan was your beard. That’s the only reason I passed her up," he grinned, making "V" shapes with his fingers on both hands, and bringing them together.

More than once.

Veronica was dumbstruck. Seeing that, Cassidy once again urged his brother to get a move on. Dick was the one who insisted they go watch the volleyball tournament on the beach. The women's volleyball tournament on the beach.

Dick, however, wasn't quite finished. "Relax, Beav. I’m totally cool with their lifestyle choice." He misinterpreted Veronica's silence as paralyzing fear because she'd been outted. "Always thought summers on Mars would be _hot_."

It took Veronica a good minute after the brothers Casablancas were on their merry, to snap out of it and walk into the Echolls' household.

 

________

 

"I looked everywhere outside, and you know what I didn't see?" A recovered Veronica rhetorically asked Logan when she found him vedging in front of the TV, whose multi-Picture-In-Picture displayed the 24-hour surveillance of his abode. "A bear in a beanie riding a unicycle. Not _one_."

She flopped down next to him on the couch, sighing. "Circuses today...what happened to standards? Barnum and Bailey have to be turning over in their graves."

"I'm sorry...I missed the part where I invited you into my house," he said rather standoffishly.

"But, the door was there, practically almost wide open...how could I resist?" she retorted. “Isn't my fault you forgot to tell your guest monkeys to close it on their way out. Also? You didn't _not_ invite me in...an apathetic, non-gesture, which throughout the world means, 'Please enter my fridge and raid it.' Okay, some small nuances get lost in translation..."

"Man, it must be exhausting loving yourself so constantly," he snarkily responded, grabbing the seven-iron that laid across his coffee table prior to leaving the couch with it.

"Only if I do it right," she quipped, turning around to see him taking practice swings.

"How many d’you think I could ace from up here?" Logan wondered, each swing getting stronger than the one before it. "Been working on my fade shot, and I really wanna concuss the douchebag from 'E! News.'"

Veronica got up and clicked off the television. "That's probably not the best goal to strive for right now."

"But think of the ratings spike waiting in the wings," he tried to tell her. "They'll be able to milk the footage for weeks, and this homicidal, racist, Tinsel Town wild child, gets to have a small moment of immense, personal satisfaction."

Veronica frowned.

"So...where's your bitch? Get loose?"

She bit the inside of her cheek. "Working."

"Which corner?"

"At the Hut," she enlightened him. "And so there’s no misunderstanding? We're equal opportunity bitches; we take turns."

"Just assumed, now that she's cannonballed into our home-sweet-cesspool again, you'd finally do it," he said.

Veronica's jaw dropped--not him too. Had there been undertones she was unaware of?

"Go to Siam, have yourselves sewn together...join a freakshow, perhaps. Hurry, though--hear she’s the fickle type. Commitment issues."

"How's that saying go? 'Assuming makes an ass outta...' who?" Her dry wit soon gave way to a more serious tone. "Buffy didn't leave because she suddenly hated us, Logan, or why ever you think she did. She was expelled--"

"That's crap. I lost count of the number of expulsions Weevil's racked up, and yet he still manages to find his way back into those hallowed halls every year, sparkling with 'Pirate Pride.'"

" _And_ her mom wanted to move," Veronica pressed on, getting quieter, "and you don't know the whole story."

"Never did like reading to the end...so why would I give a rat's ass?" Logan said angrily, nearly planting the club into the wall. "All they prove, is that whatever we think can't _suck_ any more than it already has, only gets worse. One of 'em? Cast Pops in the lead. You can hear all about it...during the twelve hours a day they're bored with me."

He smiled grimly. "Father and son, competing for airtime. Who knew I'd be following in the old man's tracks? I really hope the next step is taking Phoebe Cates from behind in the bathroom at the Oscars."

Veronica was prepared to reverse at a moment's notice. "My dad and I are the ones who put together that whole story, not Buffy. We're who you should be mad at."

"At least you stayed." Were there tears in his eyes?

Halfway through a swing, he stopped. As the club began to lower, she began to move closer.

"You're not really mad at her, are you?" She reached her hand out to touch his arm as it clicked for her. "You're mad at Lilly."

Lilly was dead and it wasn't right, but he was.

"Because she didn't stay," continued Veronica.

The club dropped to the floor, and for the second time, Logan Echolls was breaking down in her arms. "If she'd never had sex with that son of a bitch..."

That was as far as he got until the crying stopped and he asked, "Why are you here, Veronica?"

Hmm. Good question.

"Because I know," More like she hoped, "that if we can find out the truth about what happened on the bridge, maybe track down that witness who called 911--"

"I don't need a detective," he interrupted her, and not just because his lawyers were going to crush the bikers even without the whole story, "I need you."

His words hung in the air for what seemed like an eternity, before Veronica almost inaudibly said, "Okay."

Now, did she say that because she owed him, because she couldn't say no to a broken, weeping boy who needed someone to care, or because she sincerely wanted this? Veronica chose not to dwell.


	4. Four

Two weeks and change after Buffy suggested to Veronica that she get a job at "Java the Hut," she was on her second day. Seeing as how Lilly's murder was solved and Logan didn't want her help, she bit the bullet and joined America's bottom dollar workforce, thereby hanging up her PI hat. Much to her father's delight.

She'd left the detecting to Nancy Drew, and adopted "normal" as her watchword. Well, as normal as possible when you had a boyfriend eighty-seven percent of the country believed committed murder, and when you had a vampire slayer for a bosom buddy. A term which was not a euphemism, nor had any undertones.

Life had certainly calmed. Her father was back at work, and she and Buffy were joint, willing slaves to the service industry. She liked having Buffy at the house after the slavery ended, too. Having the other girl there was...different.

In a way that was just...different. Which shed light on nothing, but hey. She was on the clock anyhow. No time for dallying and dillying with her thoughts.

Krista, Java the Hut's manager (who was indeed nice), had been on the phone all morning dealing with some supply crisis, so Veronica was supposed to turn to the next senior person if she had any questions. Today, that person was "Anne," a.k.a. Buffy.

"Soon you are to be explaining for why 'between name' is known here, yes?" Veronica asked in a mock Russian accent, once she gave a customer his change and receipt at the register. "Because Fearless Leader's patience shrinks tiny by moment, dahlink."

"What do you say we just make Moose and Squirrel go boom? Then maybe he care no more, eh, Natasha?" Buffy did her best to play her role.

"Wouldn't count on it, Boris." Veronica's accent was gone. "Seriously, explain? Because I seem to recall years of groundings. Groundings that slowly drove you to hate a certain moniker pair. And it was a passionate hate."

"But when 'Buffy' wanted to be hidden..." reminded Buffy, wiping off the counter as Veronica came next to her.

"Of course! How could I forget?" Veronica smacked her forehead. "Funny how quick disappearing into a new life became your average, run of the mill, 'summer vacation,’ isn't it?"

She stage whispered, "Free tip? Next time, try dropping off the face of the earth to a place your mother _wouldn't_ instantly think to check. Like Kazakhstan." 

"Maybe I only wanted to see if she would, and try clearing my head a little," Buffy put forth, and if that was the case, she was quite happy with the results. "And maybe I wanted to re-bond with you...which, so far? I'm glad I'm doing. So far."

Veronica knew Buffy meant that, despite trying to undercut the sentiment.

So she did the same, slugging her on shoulder good-naturedly. "Back at ya, 'Anne.'" Then she winked, and went to play hostess for the new arrivals.

And to repeatedly say, "How is everything?" until it lost all meaning.

 

________

 

When Veronica returned, Buffy was waiting for a new pot of coffee. "Where’s the point in having a kitschy name if no one's gonna ask me if I speak Huttese? Where, I ask you?" She was very disappointed. "Tell me I haven't already missed the 'fanboy' crowd."

Buffy simply responded, "Wait ‘til Friday night."

"Sci-Fi Channel?" Veronica asked looking at the Hut's TV, and received a nod and an eye roll when her gaze returned to Buffy. "'Who's the hottest Cylon?' debates! Don't you just love those?"

"You've seen that show?"

"Not a frame. Just a frightening number of online polls. Still, knowing a smidge of 'Geek' does often come in handy."

"All I care about, is that's the night the tips are countable," Buffy knew the reason for that was her feminine shape.

Veronica smirked as the coffee maker dinged. "And if you knew what planet the Goa'uld came from, they'd need a calculator. Only gotta flash some cred, and," she snapped her fingers, "putty. In hand. I'm just sayin'."

"So you've had previous experience? With flashing?" Buffy bemusedly questioned, grabbing the pot. "Other than because of being dared once, I mean."

"A girl has to be prepared to make sacrifices," Veronica said enigmatically to Buffy's back as the girl went to do refills.

When Buffy’s back stiffened, Veronica knew she’d triggered memories, and thus set about berating herself.

"Brilliant, Veronica. Way to dig right in there and just tear open that emotional wound." She hurried over to prevent the dropping of a scalding hot beverage. "Here, I got it."

She freed the pot from Buffy's grip, and saw that their manager was back. "Krista, can we, uh--?"

Taking the coffee from Veronica and having seen Buffy’s face, Krista gave the okay immediately.

 

________

 

They entered the storage room, and Veronica led Buffy to the bench sitting to the side of the heavy, metal door that opened to the alley and dumpster. "I feel like kicking my own ass, which means I wouldn't blame you if--"

"I'm fine; it’s fine," Buffy uttered on autopilot, and knew how false it sounded. There was a beat, and then she exhaled. "Hafta get over it, don't I? Saved the world, greater good, can't go back..."

"...and other 'blah, blah, blah,'" Veronica said, sitting beside her on the bench, and draping an arm across her shoulders. "What have we repeatedly learned? Trying to set a timetable for getting over a _traditional_ breakup becomes pointless before it's even off the ground." She paused a moment. "Given this proven absolute, color me pretty confident as I hypothesize.

"Sending a boyfriend to a non-metaphorical hell? _Has to_ increase the pointlessness exponentially." She would've subjected her hypothesis to the scientific method, were it possible. "If there's any lovelorn female who oughta be allowed to wallow ‘til the end of time--all while listening to 'The Virgin Suicides,' naturally--it's you."

Buffy smiled gratefully, resting her head on Veronica's shoulder. "I just...I don't wanna keep remembering the look on his face, or kissing him before..." She sniffed, fighting off her natural inclination to succumb to tears. "Like to stop now, please."

Not even fleeing to her childhood home could erase those painful final seconds with a re-ensouled Angel. But at least she had Veronica to help take the edge off. Which counted for a lot, even when, like now, they both were simply mulling over their complicated relationships in comfortable silence.

As much as she enjoyed this more mature, quick-witted Veronica Mars who turned defeats into fuel to move forward, the quiet one who just knew how to be there, was equally enjoyable.

There'd been hundreds of moments just like this through their lives, but one in particular surfaced all the sudden. Eighth grade Christmas break had just started. She'd been thirteen (soon to be fourteen; Veronica had been for four months already), and they were sitting down by the waves on the beach counting hermit crab tracks in the sand. Until--

_{"Duncan kissed me today," Veronica revealed almost guiltily. "I didn't believe Lilly when she was saying he liked me, but...he kissed me. At his house. Under the mistletoe."}_

It felt like a long time before she'd responded to that, but Buffy had wanted to gag.

_{"So you're gonna like...be a couple?" Her tone was hard to nail down, though it sure hadn't been excited._

_"I guess we hafta be," Veronica answered, unsure. He would be her first boyfriend. "I mean, he's totally sweet,_ and _cute, so why not? Besides, Lilly says you_ have _to have a boyfriend in high school. Everyone'll be like, insanely jealous."_

_"Yeah. They will."}_

It wasn't that Buffy ever hated Lilly; she just hated how Veronica worshipped her. At that moment, Buffy had been on the verge of pinpointing a feeling that had steadily grown over the years, but Veronica had grabbed her hand and was talking again.

_{"We're still gonna hang out, though. We won't stop being friends just 'cause I have a boyfriend."_

_"I know that. I just think," For some reason what she’d been on the verge of slipped out of reach, and she said something she didn’t actually want to, "I'm gonna ask out Jason Martin."_

_Veronica seemed to expect something else, but let it go. "Oh my god, you should! You know he always checks you out in Chemistry. We could all...triple date!" They laughed, and that was it.}_

Jason lasted about a week. All her "boyfriends" up until destiny kicked in lasted about a week. Then no one wanted to go near her, except Veronica.

"You having lunch with Logan today?" Buffy questioned once she came back to the present.

Despite the murder charge, Clemmons couldn't deny him the right to summer school. Veronica went to the campus daily, on her break, to eat with him. Being the girlfriend.

"That's the routine," Veronica stated, then was going to volley the necessary "Why," but instead it came out as, "Do you not want me to?"

"Why wouldn't I want you to?" Buffy picked her head up and looked semi-quizzically at her friend.

"Uh, because you don't think I'm happy with him?" Veronica saw that plainly over the last two weeks. "Might not be actively detecting anymore, but a girl never forgets how."

Buffy didn't deny Veronica's observation. "Are you? Happy? In between the 'making out'--when the hormones sleep."

"I'll guess that this isn't the best time to ask if Logan gets extended an invitation. For your friends’ visit." Veronica was being evasive, and Buffy glared. "Not...completely, no. But who's ever completely happy? Honestly."

"The dwarf," quipped Buffy.

"Ha."

Never had a "ha" drowned in so much sarcasm.    

"We should get back out there." Veronica subconsciously brushed her fingers over Buffy's as they left the bench. "I know this looks like avoidance--"

That feeling was back again...

"You're right. We should."

...but it would have to wait.

 

________

 

"And how are my two earners of California’s least, legally-allowed wage this evening?" Keith asked as he put on his jacket, looking ready to leave as they arrived home.

"Swell. A sixty-six-year-old geriatric in a wheelchair kept calling me 'sugar lips,' and then gave my caboose a friendly 'hello' when it was time for his check," Veronica offered in answer, collapsing in the zebra-striped chair. "Think he was a veteran. Who's still making America proud," she added, chipper.

Otherwise, what were all those stickers decorating his wheelchair for?

Buffy collapsed on the sofa. "I wanted to break his catheter thingy."

"Which, again, ultimately would've been unpleasant for everyone," Veronica reiterated.

"Did your elderly Casanova at least tip well?" her father queried.

"Forty-percent," said Veronica with a smile, even if he did only have a piece of $3.00 cake. "Can you imagine if I'd let him do some honking?"

She gestured to her chest.

Keith addressed Buffy, speaking as the cop he was at heart. "If that man touches her again? Report him. You also have my permission to break a hip; I don't care how patriotic and enfeebled he is."

"Will do," promised Buffy happily.

"I'm sure I don't need to say this, but if it comes to that? Just don't forget how strong you are," he amended, watching her and his daughter exchange disbelieving looks. He could've been referring to the age difference, but he wasn't. "I have a couple friends in the Sunnydale P.D. who like to talk about things they shouldn't."

"You knew?" the girls asked simultaneously.

"About Buffy? Only within the last year,” he revealed. "But I've heard stories about Sunnydale since I was a rookie. And Vinnie, who'll take anything, hasn't touched a case _remotely_ connected to that town ever since the husband he was tailing got eaten by the prostitute he’d picked up."

He grabbed his keys off the counter. "I'm just sorry I wasn't in a better position to help you a couple years ago; I held you when you were six weeks old--knew you weren't a bad kid."

They were rather stunned, but Buffy managed to say thank you.

"Hold it," Veronica said, finally realizing he was going out the door, "where ya off to? Bail jumper? Club-hopping? Power-walk?"

"Draft." He was going to have a beer?

"What kind? Yingling? Heineken? Miller Genuine? Samuel Adams? Coors? Foster's? Bud?" she rattled off.

"Wise?" Buffy jumped in.

"Er?" Veronica completed, nodding in respect at her friend for picking that up. "And precisely how drunk will you be getting?"

Keith wondered, "Should I be concerned that my underage daughter can name all those alcoholic beverages so easily?"

"I'd be more worried about how much TV she watches," Buffy advised him.

He smiled when his daughter held up her fist.

"If you must know, the second draft of the book is finished, and Lloyd wants me to look it over." He kissed the tops of both girls' heads. "I'll try not to be too late, Backup's been fed, and I bought stuff for homemade pizza. Dough's in the fridge...Adios."

"The second draft of the book you wanted absolutely no part in?" Veronica had to yell as he vanished, but they needed the money.

Then she and Buffy did a double-take.

"Did he say--?" Buffy began.

"--dough?" Veronica finished.

Her father needed to stop watching the DIY Network. But shrugging at one another, they assumed there had to be instructions, so how hard could it be?

 

________

 

Here was how. There were some problems with the flattening and the flour application and the flipping and the tossing...basically, the whole process was flawed. Skilled they were at many things, but “culinary prowess” was sadly not among the many. There was white and red everywhere. At least they'd had the good sense to wear aprons over their work uniforms.

It was like a bad sitcom scene, with Backup just licking away at this rare opportunity for people food. Surveying the damage, they were frustrated, exhausted, and starving. They'd thought about calling Mac and begging her to come over and help--her family always did "homemade things" together--but it was "MythBusters Wednesday." You didn't interrupt Mac while she was nerd-crushing on Jamie Hyneman and his moustache.

Maybe Veronica's dad was right now getting a sadistic thrill out of imagining their predicament. They wanted to scream, but looking at one another, the absurdity of the whole mess came crashing down. They lost it, falling into one another for mutual support. It must've gone on for five minutes or more; each time they thought they'd laughed their last, it began anew.

When their stomachs hurt too much to continue and their eyes were too wet to see, the “feeling” from earlier was there. Coinciding with it was a moment where they forgot sauce and flour stains and just felt compelled to kiss. Where it came from they knew not, but they did know there was no Angel, no Logan, and that they kept waiting for a John Hughes soundtrack to swell in the background.

Lips met, and it was good. Mouths opened, and it got better; When it just got great, they caught up to what their mouths were doing, and everything stopped. Except the feeling. This time, it wouldn't go away.

"Um, you know, Corny delivers for 'Cho's.' We could call and um...order," said Veronica in a daze. "A pizza."

"Ordering pizza is...an idea of the good." Buffy's mastery of the English language was no better.

"Then I'll just...get the phone...number."

"I'll help with dialing."

You know what the strangest part of kissing, and enjoying kissing Buffy Summers was for Veronica Mars? Having to acknowledge, even if only to herself, that Dick Casablancas had in this instance, been astute. That was terrifying.


	5. Five

Buffy "went home sick" from her shift. It was one-hundred percent bull-honkey, so she split before her lie could be exposed. Veronica would've known, but Veronica had chosen just not to come in at all. For it was Saturday, and she was now a normal, irresponsible teenager enjoying the breezy days of summer, refusing to be confined by the Man's work-a-day world. Also a lie. It all had to do with avoidance.

They got through Thursday and Friday, but had reached the point where the fact that they'd crossed into new territory, so to speak, was getting harder to mutually ignore. Their comfort level, while not shattered, was shaky; they weren't sure how to act. And that sucked.

But it was an inevitable consequence. Buffy kept reminding herself that as she walked along the surf on Dog Beach. It was an inevitable consequence of kissing a person with whom she'd had a friendship since theirs mothers trapped them in a playpen together.

When Lianne Mars and Joyce Summers met as college roommates at Hearst freshman year, Buffy bet they never thought they'd be able to stand each other, let alone have daughters who would become as tight-knit as she and Veronica were. Or had been. Because of one, small, literal slip of the tongue.

She didn't know their situation now, or who kissed who first. Did it mean anything? Should it? Gah.

Things could change so fast. Suddenly, being in Neptune wasn't so familiar anymore.

"Ho! Do my eyes deceive me?" Out of the blue, Eli “Weevil” Navarro's voice was coming from somewhere. "'Cause if they are, I promise to say a couple Hail Marys for breaking your stride. But if I'm seeing who I think I am? Then what the _hell_ would she wanna hang around here for?"

Strike that--some things still were familiar. Some people, too.

"Oh, hey, Weevil."

Buffy had been watching her steps, so she hadn't seen Weevil and the young, five-year-old girl with him, building a sandcastle away from the water.

The leader of the PCH bike gang was without them; given his current company, she figured it was a family outing. She watched as he told the girl something, and then the girl nodded and ran to a woman sunbathing on a beach towel.

"'Oh, hey'?" he parroted Buffy's distracted tone, coming over. "Naw. Hafta know that's not gonna cut it, Hazel Eyes."

Spreading his arms out, he went to go hug her in greeting. "Don't try to fight it, girl...just let Weevil do his thing, make it easy on yourself."

She smirked and let him envelop her in a loose but warm hug, which she returned. "Still the most charming bad ass in Neptune, huh?"

Ending their hug he said, smirking back at her, "All got our crosses to bear."

"Ain't that the truth," she agreed after a slow breath. "Who’s the little girl?"

"My niece. Ophelia. Her mother's kind of between employers right now, so we're using her time off to take the kid here for the day," he explained. "Can't get enough of her 'Uncle Eli.'"

"I’m seeing why--he builds a mean castle," she commented on his work.

"Oughta see my drawbridge," he added suggestively, gathering up broken seashells in the sand at his feet. "So not only does she come back, but she heads straight for the barrio, too."

He chucked a shell into the ocean. "Be careful if I were you. Picked up some new members while you've been gone...who don't know you got a pass."

And he chucked another. "They spot a white girl on our turf, that's gonna cause a problem."

"When I beat them down for trying to gang-grope me," Buffy filled in the blank.

"And another headache like _that_? I don't need. Not when there're so many other pressing concerns requirin' my attention."

His next throw had a bit more "oomph" to it.

"You really think he did it?" Buffy asked, knowing he was referring to Logan and the upcoming trial.

The look he gave her said quite clearly that he wasn't willing to talk on that subject. He just pointed to the fading bruise on his head, and she held her hands up in peace.

"Well, I just came here to, um, have some quiet, reflecting-time, that's all," she explained.

He handed her a couple shells. "How long you been back?"

"About three weeks; needed a break from my life. I've been staying with Veronica,” she said, taking her turn and throwing a shell into the sea. "Reconnecting and...uh, basically just reconnecting."

There was a loaded word. She waited for his next question.

"This break have something to do with a bloodsucker?"

Her next shell got launched with full, super-force behind it. They both lost it in the sun.

She admitted, "Something, yeah."

Yes, Weevil knew. She was the first, tiny blonde girl--who he wasn't getting to know intimately on the side--that he ever gave the time of day to. Not long after she discovered her new talents, she used them, almost instinctually, to get a couple '09er jocks away from one of Weevil's female cousins. It freaked his cousin out, but Buffy earned his gratitude and respect, and that of his gang.

So he took her at her word when she told him why she needed to get to L.A. night after night, and was able to turn to him for transportation. Or, if he was otherwise occupied with Lilly Kane, then it was usually Chardo. To start, anyway.

A few times, she couldn't avoid them getting involved. The PCHers were surprisingly religious; when the rest heard the stories, they all started making the drive. When they had an opportunity to take down a vampire, they didn't waste it. When she went up against the vampire who murdered her first watcher inside that gym, she’d had backup to help light the fire.

Some people died, a lot got hurt, but for those who survived, it was probably the first time they felt like they'd done something truly good. Going through a battle like that tied people together. Race, gender and wealth be damned.

"Hope you gave it hell," said Weevil, hand absently tracing his thigh over his jeans, where they both knew the scar was from that night.

"Nail on head, actually," she admitted with a twinge of sadness. "I lost my boyfriend because of it."

That was as much truth as he was getting.

"Sorry..." he offered while holding onto his masculine exterior. "Guy treat you right?"

"Better than I treated him," she said, regretfully blaming herself again. "I guess I'm waiting for...I don't know what I'm waiting for. Things to be okay again? Me to feel okay?"

"And you thought quality time with Veronica Mars would be the cure," he deduced.

She eyed him cautiously. "Was that an innuendo? I think it was; I'm getting a definite 'innuendo' vibe. Do you know we kissed? How do you know we kissed?"

Her mouth was covered several words too late. She was easily taken by paranoia. He eyed her like she'd gone loco.

"Figured that was old news. You sayin' you weren't before?"

"No!" Buffy was thrown by this. "Who else thought--?"

"Lilly." He saw her about to disbelieve, but kept going. "Oh yeah. Talked me to death about the two'a you. Said you 'shared the same brain,' and that you'd both give 'The Look' every time the other wasn't watchin'. Dunno what she meant, but, really ticked her off."

"But there were male people,” protested Buffy, “we liked male people. How could we give off a...?"

A light-bulb lit for him just now.

"Ah...so now that you caught up, you're worried about giving your boy his due." Grinning, Weevil was proud of himself. "I have you figured, Hazel Eyes."

"Congratulations. Unfortunately, no medals to give," she told him sarcastically.

Of course it was Angel. If she was kissing Veronica, then she wasn't grieving. And if she wasn't grieving, she wasn't punishing herself. As far as she was concerned, regardless of whether or not she was tired of wallowing, she had much more to put herself through before it would be right to kiss anyone else.

Besides, what drove the "Veronica Kiss?" Her wanting to, her not wanting to be lonely, or transferring her feelings for Angel to Veronica, because she _was_ grieving? Every option except the first was unfair to Veronica, and a surefire way to ruin a lifelong friendship.

"Unca Eli! Take me in the water!" Ophelia yelled, running towards them.

Buffy smiled. "Go ahead, Weevil. I'll be okay. Say 'hi' to your family for me."

"Look, if he was good to you, then the guy'd want you happy, right?" he asked, pulling off his tank top, then his shoes and socks.

Thankfully, his jeans stayed on. After her brow was done rising, Buffy had to nod that that sounded plausible.

"Don't add up sometimes, I know--you think I ever, in a million years, _wanted_ to fall for Lilly hard as I did? But you feel what you feel." He put his fist up, and she knocked it. "Don't be a stranger, hear?"

"I won't," she promised as he gathered up his niece onto his shoulders.

"And by the way, never said--"

"Got it," she smiled, knowing he wasn’t entirely the woman-using bad ass he always presented.

Then it was right back to reflecting. Albeit with some more food for thought.

 

________

 

What was Veronica doing? Much the same as her friend, except while stationary and indoors. She was in her room, lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling. At a time like this, she'd usually lose herself in a case, but she wasn't doing that anymore, so this "laying and staring" thing was the best she could come up with.

Naturally, Lilly wound up beside her. "Just because we're in bed together, that doesn't mean you can just go ahead and French me without asking, okay?"

"I thought you were..." Veronica didn't look away from the ceiling.

"At peace?" Lilly finished her living friend's sentence. "Yeah, well, nobody bothers to mention it? But peace is boring. That, and I _had_ to get away from Cobain—you know he still thinks he's alive? I mean, seriously...he's been worm food for like eleven years. And it was suicide! Get a clue."

"So you came all the way from the afterlife just to make fun of me?" Veronica asked grumpily.

"No!" Lilly objected vehemently. "Geez, you solve a girl's murder and all the sudden it stops being, 'Oh, poor Lilly, words can't describe how much I miss you,' and then the bitchy attitude starts. Does that come with the G.L.A.A.D card or something?"

Veronica turned her head and glared. "What was that?"

"Uh, a question?" Lilly responded, professing ignorance. "Hey, I was saving myself for college; it's not my fault I never got the chance to join."

When Veronica frowned, Lilly poked her on the head. "Relax, I'm over it. I got killed by Aaron Echolls! I'm gonna be famous forever!"

Veronica smirked. "Because _that's_ why I spent a whole year of my life finding out who really killed you."

Of course Lilly would think like that.

"Why're you here?"

"To apologize...and help you out," answered Lilly, causing Veronica to sit herself up against the wall of her room and look puzzled.

Lilly sat up too. "I kept trying to bring you into the twenty-four-hour music video that was my life. I loved it, obviously, but even as ‘Nikita' as you are now, that's not your thing," she informed Veronica knowingly. "You can pretend to be as hardboiled as you want, Veronica Mars, but that doesn't change the fact that your heart's in everything you do. Even in the total lust fest you're having with _my_ boyfriend."

Veronica averted her eyes. "It just sort of, uh, happened--"

"Didn't anybody ever tell you to respect the dead? 'Cause when they talk, you're supposed to shut up and be all like, reverent," Lilly cut her off, staring her down until Veronica made a zipper motion over her lips.

She sighed like she felt very put out. "Buffy's always been on your wavelength; could've seen you two clicking from Napa. But since she didn’t wanna realize how awesome I was and follow, especially in high school, I didn't encourage 'young love' like I should have."

"You knew?" Veronica was wide-eyed.

"The _janitor_ knew."

"Okay, that’s something I never needed to hear."

Lilly laughed at the look on her friend’s face, then continued. "So...sorry." Her hand went to Veronica's knee. "Now this part? Easy process of elimination."

She began counting off on her fingers. "My brother, even though I love him because I'm obligated? No way. There was a time, but that's long over. You're in a completely different place...and he's the same-old Donut. Besides, can't expect lightning to strike twice."

"Plus he's dating Meg," Veronica pointed out. "At least, I think he still is."

"Manning?" Lilly's face twisted in horror. "God, he _needs_ to move on from the 'Ken and Barbie' fantasy. Like, soon."

She shuddered. "Anyway...where was I...? Oh, right." Beat. "Remember how I said your heart was in it? Well, Logan’s is in it more; you hafta see that. He's clinging to you like a life preserver, Veronica; both swimming in dangerous waters if you ask me," she said seriously. " _And_ he's got serious anger issues to work through. Believe me, I saw 'em first."

Veronica knew this, but she still didn't like it. "But I don't wanna hurt him; he doesn't have anybody anymore, Lilly, and Dick doesn't count."

Lilly nodded sadly, understanding that. "Still, better get ready--'cause ya may have to."

After taking a moment to accept that, Veronica asked, "Lemme guess--Buffy's next in line?"

"Try last. She went and got herself just damaged enough to be interesting. Like you," smirked Lilly. "I know you like her, you know you like her, so quit being a dumb ass and trying to figure out why. You live in your head way too much; for once, do yourself a favor, and go with it.

"Feel what you feel. I mean, come on...the truth's been out there _forever_ already." Then she looked at Veronica's clock--it was blinking "12:00 A.M." "Oops, gotta go."

Veronica, still lying on her bed, woke up from her dream.

 

________

 

Buffy was standing in Veronica's doorway. "Hey."

Veronica sat up, for real this time, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and turning to her friend. "Hey."

 

________

 

 

If there was a clock with hands in Veronica's bedroom, you'd hear ticking pretty loudly. Veronica patted her her knees, looking around the room and whistling Harmonica's theme from "Once Upon a Time in the West." It seemed appropriate. They were both being inscrutable like Charles Bronson, and there was a severe lack of talk.

Buffy was at least moving around the room keeping the blood flowing. She instigated this not-conversation without exactly knowing what she was going to say. Not one of her smarter moves, but she knew if she put it off, it would've kept getting put off. Now she had no choice but to eventually say something constructive, or else walk out and look like a jerk.

What was that sitting at the rear of Veronica's bed?

"This is why Mary Todd Lincoln went insane," stated Veronica as Buffy came over and grabbed what turned out to be a photo album.

"Her husband being balcony-assassinated right next to her might've been a factor too," a preoccupied Buffy said, sitting on the bed's edge and opening up the album.

"That? _Bang_ \--over in a New York minute. Wasn't like he bled to death. Yeesh, lady--move on." When Veronica went off like this, it meant she didn't know what to say, either.

Buffy felt less pressured. "Weren’t New York minutes slower back then?"

Veronica didn't let that deter her. "Must you always poke holes through my historical diatribes? Think in this last year apart, you would’ve found a new pastime."

"I did, remember? And it’s...a _lot_ less fun. Way more angsty.  But it's not 'need.' Or 'want,' even. Just, somebody has to eventually--why not me?"

Buffy shrugged, more focused on the photos in the album resting in her lap. "These're from Six Flags, aren’t they?" she asked semi-rhetorically, as her eyes saw the amusement park backdrop.

She slid down next to Veronica. "Sixth grade Easter break."

"The first of many, 'If you get good grades...' payoffs. What a perfect system--we got trips, the 'Rents got bragging rights that fit nicely on a bumper," Veronica smirked, staring down at the pictures with her. "I was looking at this before I fell aslee--“

"Our memories made you sleepy?" Buffy questioned, sounding a step or two away from crushed.

Veronica coughed. "Yeah, since there's no way to backpedal out of this gracefully," she quickly laid a finger over a photo, "look! Daffy Duck took this right after you threw up in that trashcan. Doesn't it put you right back in the moment?"

She received a dirty look. "I'm not the one who bought double prints on the way out. That's all on your mom."

"I shoulda stepped on his fat, stupid, webbed foot," Buffy grumbled, and then pointed her finger at Veronica accusingly. "It was your fault. Eat the corndog, you said. Let's go on the roller coaster, you said. What's the worst that could happen, you said."

The dirty look returned.

"I held your hair back, didn't I?" Veronica reminded her, and switched her gaze to another picture. Then gasped. "No. No way."

Buffy also looked. "Oh my god. That's 'The Look.' Right there."

There were two pictures of interest actually. Taken probably minutes apart. They were sitting on a bench, it looked to be dusk-ish, and they were obviously tired.

One picture had Buffy staring at Veronica as Veronica was using the large, purple gorilla her dad won for her in the "Duck Shoot" game, as a pillow; the other was of Veronica staring at Buffy discreetly, while Buffy was asking her own dad why he didn't win _her_ a gorilla.

"Mm," Veronica was shaking her head. "So now the question we have to ask ourselves is--how far back does this go? I mean, that day I gave you my juice box because you forgot yours? _That_ could've been a come-on. We don't know."

"No wonder the whole world figured it out." Buffy was finally understanding. "We should've just worn signs--the glow-y, neon kind. Woulda been the same thing."                                                                               

Veronica looked up from the album. "Excuse me? 'Whole world'?"

Did Dick Casablancas give her his insight, too?

Buffy realized she may have overstated. "Um, Weevil. Kinda wasn’t expecting, but then my eyes saw. Whole world--in his hands. I think there's a song."

"You talked to Weevil? Today?" Veronica asked, her mind going to Logan and the bridge as Buffy nodded. "How is he?"

"Like always. Tattooed and Mexican," said Buffy, because, what else could she have said? "Except with a bruise."

She anticipated Veronica's next question. "He wouldn't talk about it; but he did say Lilly knew too, though. About how we repressed being attracted."

"I know, she told me," Veronica said without going over it in her head first.

It earned her a strange look from Buffy.

"She may or may not be a ghost who haunts my dreams, all right?"

"A real one?” Buffy wondered. “'Cause, you know, I've met...or nah. That was more poltergeist-y. And I guess one was kind of just invisible."

"Did you call Zelda Rubinstein or Dan Aykroyd?" Veronica questioned, to which Buffy childishly stuck out her tongue.

Hey, wait a second...

"Did we just admit out loud? To each other?” wondered Buffy. “Am I the only one who’s realizing?"

"Huh." No, now Veronica did. "Well that went well. This is how everyone should awkwardly redefine their relationships from now on."

Setting the album to the side, Buffy said, "By not knowing it?"

"Smoother sailing, is all," Veronica believed. She waited a beat, then, "So...we're okay with this attraction? I'm a girl, you're a girl, best friends, yadda yadda yadda?"

"It was never really the 'girl' thing; more the 'best friend' thing. After you date a vampire, other taboos kinda pale," Buffy told her. "But I mean, you're with Logan--"

"--and you have your issues--" Veronica interjected.

"--and we suck at timing. In-in the future though, or almost near-ish, trying would probably be...worth it. Not that I'm hoping you're gonna break up with Logan, or that I want you to..."

Buffy was babbling, but nowhere near as bad as Willow. "...okay, maybe I do a little, but I'd never ask. And yeah, friends for seventeen years, but that’s a positive. ‘Cause if we didn’t...mesh, there’s no way we’d ever...we’d still know how to be."

Veronica waited until she was sure Buffy was out of steam. "No argument here. And I’m all for keeping the door of possibility open, don’t get me wrong, but another kiss can't happen. However fantastic it might have been.”

“’Til an almost near-ish future--” Buffy started.

“--when a new word may just adorn my locker every day, as I move farther out on the social fringe,” Veronica finished. "Really, a seventeen-year foundation could only benefit the relationship. _Possible_ relationship, that is."

"Ooh, point. A great point." Buffy was proud of this logic they were exhibiting. "'Course, it isn't that we _can't_ kiss..."

"It's that we shouldn't," chimed in Veronica. "Because I'd be cheating--and you'd feel like you were--if we, as an example, kissed right now. We could explain the kitchen--"

Buffy's head tilted in question. "We could?"

Veronica gave her an "Of course" look.

"Anything can be explained, Buffy. Given enough prep time." She then resumed her original thought. "But if it happens again, it would just feel too much like a 90210 plot development. Or, to a lesser extent, 'The O.C.' Why jump in those murky waters?"

"Our relationship should absolutely have a better starting place. The best,” added Buffy. “Like you holding a stereo outside my window that's playing that Peter Gabriel song."

"I get to be Cusack?" Veronica said with a grin. "I gotta say, I like where your head's at, J.F.F.N."

Buffy realized that she immediately deciphered the acronym and knew it meant, "Just Friend For Now." Maybe they did share the same brain.

"I believe we've accomplished something here." Veronica stuck her hand out. "What’s say we make it official?"

Buffy put her hand in Veronica's, and they shook, firmly.

"We can do this," she believed.

But the entire agreement sort of became negated. Their faces somehow kept getting closer and closer together, and just like that, connected by the mouth. This forced them to re-agree, with a slight addendum--everything would take effect once they left the bedroom.

Fifteen minutes later, they were as good as their word, by golly.

 


	6. Six

"Buffy, honey?" Keith was trying to get her attention. "If your friends find you passed out on our floor, there are a hundred different scenarios they could report back to your mother that'll say something about my ability to care for her firstborn--all of them bad."

"My grandfather, before he died a couple years ago? Had to use this portable respirator," said a concerned Mac from the couch. "She looks like she needs one...fast."

Wallace, whose hair was returning to its natural, afro-like state, nodded from his spot next to her. "Sure does."

He side-whispered to her, "Sorry about your gramps."

"Thanks," she whispered back.

Veronica had been beside her father at the door, but walked over to where Buffy was standing next to the chair, got in front of her, and put hands on her shoulders.

"Breathe," she instructed. "Breathe or I get the tape. And play it."

Buffy's nervous eyes became nervous for a whole other reason. She released the air she'd been holding. "You swore."

"And now it'll continue to hold," Veronica told her before smiling. "Sorry, drastic measures."

She switched gears to assurance. "They’re coming here. To Neptune. _On purpose_. Tells me, they must be dying to see ya. Ergo, they don’t hate you.”

"What happened?" Mac mouthed to Wallace. "And what tape?"

She tried to make a "tape" shape with her hands. He shrugged, in the dark.

"I know, but..." Buffy started saying.

The phone was different than facing them, which is what she came to Neptune to not do. They were going to be here any minute, and she was imagining all the ways it could go wrong. She didn't want to screw up; she couldn't lose their friendship. It would devastate her to drive away the only people in Sunnydale High who'd wanted to know her.

Yes, it was already July 4th Weekend. Another two weeks had gone by. It was Saturday the 2nd, and yesterday--at Logan's preliminary hearing--the D.A.'s PCHer witnesses were so thoroughly discredited that he conceded, and the judge threw out the case.

Veronica had told Buffy that when she got in the limo with Logan outside the courthouse, the town wasn't happy. Half of it, anyway. And earlier today, in Logan's yellow Hummer, someone took a shot at them. She was noticeably shaken.

Buffy was not happy. Her natural, protective instinct wanted to hunt down and hurt the shooter. If Logan was somebody's target…but Buffy couldn’t do anything. Plus, the girls were maintaining their resolve not to cross any lines (again).

Tonight was for fun. Everything else would still be there in the morning.

"But you just keep overindulging your dramatic side...save it for the stage. This is the 'Acid Rain Speech Panic of ‘97’ all over again," teased Veronica. "And what happened?"

"I got the hiccups," Buffy mumbled.

"Couldn't even get past your own name. So the throttle? Ease back," Veronica advised/ordered. "We’d rather not hafta pretend that we don’t know that girl in the corner who sounds like she swallowed a frog on meth. Which we're more than prepared to do."

She looked to her friends for support.

"We-we can be cruel," Mac nodded, and spur of the moment, did a "Vanna White" gesture over Wallace's face.

His, "'Am I supposed to care who you are?" expression was on display.

"Satisfied?" Veronica asked when Buffy looked back at her.

Buffy chuckled, and the tension slowly evaporated. "Okay, okay. Stop. I’m begging."

"Learned it from my mom over the years," Wallace said once he broke "character." "She sees Jehovah's Witnesses coming up the block? ‘Watchtowers' go flyin'."

"Speaking of the woman who strikes fear in the hearts of mobile, religious organizations," Veronica turned around, speaking to her father, "what time is she picking you up?"

"First of all," Keith began, "we're leaving together. She just happens to be meeting me here because Darryl's babysitter lives in the complex--Mrs. Walker? I recommended her; you were present."

Veronica, Buffy, Mac, and Wallace were all looking at each other silently--they knew who wore the pants in the relationship.

Keith sighed. "Seven-thirty."

"Okay, but I don't want you staying out ‘til all hours--people might talk. Then I'll have to defend your honor every time some random person on the street calls my dad, 'That Keyed-Up, Tripped-Out, Slice of White-Bred Man-Whore...Who Used To Be Sheriff,'" said his daughter exhaustedly. "It’s bad enough my analyst is already gonna make a cool nickel, but no more. I’m hoarding the rest for student loans. From a college far away."

"And I don't want you thinking even abstractly, about the _idea_ of intoxication," he warned, reclaiming his role as parent. "I worked an embezzlement case for 'The Pit's' owner; he knows what'll happen if I find out he served any minors related to me. By blood or otherwise.

"All of you promise not to drink, and I promise I won't sell myself around town. Also, keep in mind that I do have a breathalyzer lying in wait."

Keith Mars wasn't to be taken lightly, which was why the quartet chorused, "We promise."

"Good. As do I." He could hear voices getting closer outside. "Anyway, I think we're spending most of the night in. At her place."

Instantaneously, like they'd been sucker punched, Veronica and Wallace exclaimed a disturbed, "AW!"

 

________

 

"Avon calling!" Xander Harris said cheerily through the screen door.

Cordelia Chase smacked him. "Quit it--I'm getting 'Worm Guy' flashbacks."

"Ow!" He rubbed his arm where it stung. "You act like it was your first, horrifying brush with squirmy death...and he's why we're together today!"

"Yeah," her eyes went skyward, as if begging the heavens for strength, "don't remind me."

Willow Rosenberg pushed past both of them, rolled her eyes, and knocked.

"Hi, um, can we come in?" she asked the people inside the apartment, who'd just been kind of staring at the odd couple's back-and-forth.

Veronica put her hand on Buffy's back and pushed her forward. This nearly made her trip, but she recovered and went to let them in, smiling broadly. She hadn't realized how much she missed them. Willow and Xander smothered her in a bear hug.

"Hey, guys," Buffy greeted.

Behind them, Cordelia gave a short, not as enthusiastic, wave.

"Hi, Cordelia," she acknowledged as her friends’ affection was getting painful. "Uh, lungs not expanding."

Both hurriedly released her.

"It's just great to see you, Buf," said Xander sincerely.

"It really is. But I've missed you more. Super more," Willow started right after him. "Cordelia was supposed to go away with her parents again this summer, but she didn't so her and Xander could spend it making out in every closet Sunnydale has."

"That is totally false! I didn't go because Las Palmas is like, the Motel 6 of all-inclusive resorts, and if I wanted to go to a Motel 6--which, _no_ \--they're a dime a dozen right here. Probably literally. Why should I fly all the way to Mexico for a knock-off?" Cordelia ranted, setting the record straight. "Xander wasn’t even a crappy consolation prize."

"09er!" Mac coughed into her hand.

Veronica and Wallace shielded their mouths, while Xander was busy being offended.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "No, ya know what? 'Double hey!' With a side of, 'See if you ever taste these lips again' oats!"

"What?" Cordelia didn’t see the problem. "No offense, baby."

Buffy looked like she'd eaten some bad fish... _Baby_?

"They were like this the whole drive, Buffy," Willow complained, frowning. "I can't take it anymore."

"Don't worry, s’okay now...and did you cut your hair?" Buffy noticed, turning herself around and placing her arm over Willow's shoulders. "Wait, wanna introduce you first."

She pointed everyone out as she named them. "That's Veronica, Wallace, and Mac. And that's Mr. Mars, Veronica's dad."

Willow's wave _was_ enthusiastic.

"Everybody? Willow. You already pretty much know who 'Ozzie and Harriet' are," finished Buffy.

There was a string of "Heys" and "Hi"'s bandied about between the teenagers, while Keith said, "It's nice to meet you, finally; Buffy and her mom have both spoken very highly."

Due to his previously stated concerns, he might've been trying too hard with his first impression. "Any friend of hers--"

"--is apparently kinda weird," Mac interrupted with a smirk. "Us too. Hey, maybe we can have a ‘Weird-Off.’"

"That Beetle outside? It's hers," Buffy told Willow, encouraging her over to the girl with the red streak in her hair. "You should ask her how she got it. She's big on...computer friendliness.

"But where’s…?"

"Oz came last night with the band," answered Willow. "He-he's probably been at the club rehearsing and setting up stuff. Cordelia drove us in her car."

It was hell, but her curiosity overpowered the memory as she asked Mac, "How big?"

Mac, having not forgotten that she wanted to discover Willow’s secret to attracting cool guys like Oz, was seizing a golden opportunity. "I think we’ll both be learning a lot from each other. Hopefully often, and for many nights to come."

"Xander, d'you know Wallace likes 'MAD Magazine'?" Buffy said to him, after leaving the girls to chat.

"See? Weird," Mac commented to Willow.

Wallace's gaze went to Veronica, and it accused her of leaking information. Veronica played dumb. Xander was elated.

"Finally! Someone who shares my secret shame!"

Cordelia stood alone, feeling very "odd-woman-out."

"I don't get paired up?" she asked.

As if knowing a punch line needed filling, Backup had managed to nudge open the bathroom door (they'd put him in there so he wouldn't freak at all the new people), and rushed directly to her.

"Oh, that's really great. Not."

Buffy went back over by Veronica, who couldn't stop herself. "Aww, Backup's found himself a bitch!"

"Shhh!" Buffy uttered, trying not to give in to the funny.

Veronica then wore a bit of a cocky grin, waiting for her correct assessment from earlier to be acknowledged.

"Yeah, yeah." Despite the words, Buffy was smiling. "So um, no Logan?"

"Said he had plans 'with the boys,'" shrugged Veronica, “and not to wait up.”

While she worried he’d get himself killed if he wasn't careful, she was less than bothered that he turned down her invitation. Especially with Buffy's hand slipping into hers.

"C'mon...we better scram before Backup starts humping her leg," she said.

At the other end of the living room, Xander was asking Wallace, "Is Neptune really vampire-free? 'Cause in Sunnydale, they could have their own union."

"What?" Wallace and Mac sputtered together.

"I...wasn't supposed to ask that, was I?"

 

________

 

"How is the vampire situation?" Buffy asked Xander later at their group's chosen table in The Pit, which lived up to its name, being even danker and smaller than the Bronze.

"Quiet, like last summer," he said, and they watched Willow and Mac in the crowd, watching the Dingoes play.

"And you guys aren't patrolling, right?"

"The thought was mulled over,” he admitted, “but then Giles did his 'British Guy Lecture and Stare Down' routine, and the thought sorta chose to die. Real fast."

"With glasses or without?" she tread fearfully.

" _Without_. There are no words."

He had all her sympathy.

Pushing it from his mind, he went on. "Willow's just been putting up flyers telling people to stay by lit places that like to crowd."

She grinned. "How many have you had to hang?"

"Lost track around, oh yeah, a cotillion?" He sipped his Sprite.

"Xander? A cotillion is a ball. For, y'know, debutantes-to-be?" Buffy informed him with a small smile.

"I knew that," he said after a long pause. "But enough about boring old Sunnydale, what's up with you, my super-powered pal?"

"Other than working and gaining valuable life experience that's teaching me how people are rude, annoying and stupid?"

She'd just about had it with customer service.

"That was actually in the first draft of the Constitution...fun fact," he briefly interrupted.

"But I've been hanging with Veronica even then, so it's bearable. We just make fun of them when they leave."

She needed to go off topic for a second. "I told Willow already, but, I'm sorry I just took off like that, and you have no idea how glad I am you're here."

"We get why you had to; but thanks, makes a guy feel good--I _guess_ I can forgive. And on this end? Also much gladness. A total, Buffy-less summer woulda been the worst drag in the long history of..." He saw Buffy distracted.

She was looking over to where Veronica and Cordelia were standing together in the drink line. Unhappily. It was possible the two would have to be separated.

Xander said, "You and Veronica are close, huh? 'Me and Willow' close?"

"Uh huh...more or less,” Buffy answered, then given who was in her field of vision, “Cordelia really sprung for suites at the Neptune Grand until Monday?"

"The woman does love her some luxury. They have a masseuse!" He quickly added, “Who I know _nothing_ about, if Cordy asks.”

Buffy chuckled.

"Before you go getting any crazy notions, it's me and Oz in one suite, and Cordelia and Willow in the other. Sadly, there is no hanky or panky," he nipped that right in the bud.

Wallace, who’d been answering nature’s call, came back to the table. "’Kay, I gotta hear more about that 'Praying Mantis Lady.'"

 

________

 

"'Just be myself'?" Mac repeated back to Willow over the loudness of the music and crowd. "That can't seriously work!"

"I know," Willow understood her reaction all too well, "I couldn't believe it, either! But now I have a boyfriend! Who's doing a solo!"

Mac couldn't deny the evidence in front of her face. Yet Willow's boyfriend was also a werewolf, so that had to be taken into account. Too hairy for her tastes.

 

________

 

A little while later, in between the band's sets, Veronica slumped into a chair next to Buffy at the table.

"You too?" Buffy said, handing her the bottled water she left behind.

Veronica took a healthy swig. "My dogs they are a'barking."

"What's the latest?"

As arrangers of this evening's activity, they felt it was their duty to play hostesses, and make the rounds. See that everyone was jiving and such. It was generally going as good as they'd hoped.

"Xander and Cordelia are dance-grinding, Wallace is hitting on a 'hottie,'" Yes, Veronica did make air quotes, "because if Xander can snag one, he can, and Willow, Mac, and Oz are over there debating the downloadable music market. Specifically, the pros and cons of 'Digital Rights Management'. I chose not to jump in."

Buffy looked their direction, saw the heated discussion, and figured that was wise.

"But I'm about ready to shove Cordelia's 'fashion sense' right up her..." At the last second, Veronica bit her tongue. "She called my boots 'butch'; the old me would get incriminating photos of people with that misconception."

Buffy couldn’t help noticing, "They are semi, uh..."

Veronica gasped. "I am _not_ the butch one."

Was she implying something?

"Are you saying I am?" Buffy asked.

"You do lift cars."

"That's not even...shut up."

Seconds drifted by.

"We'll have to decide which one of us is, you know," Veronica said, because one of them had to. "Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly taught America that."

Buffy’s eyebrows rose. "Didn't one of them die at the end? Or both of them?"

"Nope, that's Thelma and Louise. What did _they_ teach America? That it’s somehow justified, discriminating against we women who dare to drive. You fly one Thunderbird off the Grand Canyon..."

"I don't think modeling our future relationship on two suicidal people is a healthy thing," Buffy suggested rather sensibly, drinking her iced tea.

"Plus, as soon as Romeo and Juliet went down that road, it became so 1597," quipped Veronica. "Not to get all rom-com before 'the humorous obstacle scene'? But, I want to kiss you. Just puttin' it out there."

"Me too, but you can't just...ssh!" Buffy admonished, already thinking about it. "Remember last time?"

"Vividly. Sorta the whole problem."

"Dumb question," Buffy conceded. "But we shook."

The Pit's sound system suddenly cut out, hushing everyone.

Everyone but Buffy. "A hundred percent no more making out until..." She suddenly realized how loud her words were, and saw the trio of Willow, Mac, and Oz at the table.

Willow was the only one rendered mute in wide-eyed surprise. Mac and Oz were mute by default.

"Oh. Hi."

"The 'humorous obstacle,' ladies and gents," Veronica smirked, trying to shrink into a non-existent shell.

 

________

 

No one else had any time to pay attention to the possible lesbian activity about to occur, because somebody by the bar was yelling at the bartender to turn the TV up. As a group, they went to watch.

"...is breaking news at this hour," the anchor was saying over footage of a burning fire. "Twenty minutes ago, a frantic 911 call brought almost the entire Neptune Fire Department, to the Neptune City Park, where an unknown party or parties, has as you can see, set the community pool ablaze. Little else is known right now, but one could speculate that this is just the latest incident in a rapidly escalating class war, sparked thirty-six hours ago by..."

Veronica and Buffy looked at each other, and didn't like the feeling in the pit of their stomachs. "Unknown Party." Right.


	7. Seven

Sunday morning, July 3rd. Willow followed Buffy as she walked down the block on the not-rich side of Neptune. Last night's arson kind of changed the weekend plans.

"Sorry about this, Will," Buffy apologized. "It's just, things're kinda crazy right now, and I wanna make sure Veronica's gonna be okay."

"We're hanging like best friends do; that's all that matters," smiled Willow, trying not to notice all the nice, Mexican families looking at the Caucasian girls strolling through their neighborhood. "And sure you'd wanna be sure. Especially 'cause you like her so much. So much you...wanna kiss her. Wh-when did that happen?"

"The wanting started a couple weeks ago." If Buffy didn't have a goal she was heading towards, she would've found this conversation harder. "Liking each other? We think somewhere between 1996 and 1998. We’re still narrowing."

The romantic in Willow sighed, while her innocent brain struggled. "But isn't she kinda...uh...girl-like?"

"She is?" Buffy asked with faux-shock, and was treated to her friend's resolve face. "Kay, still scarier than Wallace."

She exhaled. "It's never been about...it's that she's _Veronica_. I like Veronica. Her being a girl is almost...a non-issue."

They turned up the next block, and she kept talking.

"But obviously, because she is, that hasta mean part of me’s attracted to girl-like...shapes. The shape of girls. And I dunno what I'm saying anymore."

"No, I-I understand," assured Willow.

"You do? Wanna explain to me?"

"It's...it's like me with Oz. I love Oz. Who he is and all. And if he was him, except as a girl? I still would have to. Because he...she...would still be Oz. Inside. Not that I _want_ him to be a girl; I'm just, uh, saying I wouldn’t mind. If he was.”

"Wow, you love Oz?" Buffy wasn't expecting to hear that.

Willow's lips spread into a huge smile. "Yeah, I do."

The summer had been good to Willow Rosenberg, Buffy surmised. A new 'do, a new visible confidence, new love...

"You're cloud-bound, aren't you?" Buffy recognized.

"You betcha." Willow's smile became a grin. 

Buffy laughed. "Enjoy the air up there; you deserve it. M'happy for you, Willow."

"Can I ‘ditto’?"

Buffy looked nervous. "Really? You are?"

Willow nodded. "Angel would be, too." As that came out, Buffy lost half a step. "That's...duh. Why'd I say his name? Bad. I'm...that-that was bad."

"No, it's not that..." Buffy pointed to the Sherriff's car sitting in front of Weevil's house. "It's _that_."

Fudge.

 

________

 

When the girls reached Weevil's walk, Sheriff Don Lamb was exiting the house, Weevil on his heels.

"Why would we torch our own pool?" asked Weevil.

Lamb turned around on a step. "Hmm, great question--why would you?" He gasped like he just had a brilliant thought. "Maybe, because you were so...enraged, by Logan Echolls getting off the hook for gutting one of your crew, you decided to take justice into your own hands. Manufacture another crime, set him up to take the fall...

"How's that for motive, amigo?"

"Oh, it's a good one," Weevil admitted, nodding. "And if I thought for one second that a jury in this town couldn't be bought, and would actually convict an '09er kid of anything other than stealing golf tees from the country club? Mighta gave it some thought."

"Hey, now that I'm thinking about it? I'm probably wrong." Something was fishy. Lamb never admitted to the possibility of being wrong. "Your guys don't really need an excuse to destroy public property--isn't it pretty much instinct? Huh. Guess stereotypes have to start somewhere."

Weevil gave the universal symbol for "Fuck You" to Lamb's back. "Hope you weren't counting on many votes from us stereotypes come November, Sherriff. I don't know if we'll be able to find the polls."

When Lamb passed the fence and ran into Buffy and Willow, he grinned like a Cheshire Cat. "Been wondering when I’d run into you. Honestly? Didn't expect it to be here. Are you in the wrong part of town, or the right one, Miss Summers?"

"That’s your business ‘cause why? _Deputy_ Lamb," said Buffy, steel-faced.

"Cute." His grin was now a smirk. "Hang on, with you being back--and I should've thought of this sooner--that makes you a possible suspect. Close to number one, actually. If I remember right, arson was kind of a hobby for you back in the day."

"Buffy wasn't anywhere near that pool." Willow came to her aid. "She was with us at The Pit last night. An-and about fifty other people can say so, too."

Lamb was bemused. "Who's the redhead?"

"A friend from where I live now. She's visiting...and leave her alone," Buffy told him in preemptive warning.

He was still mad that, at the time he was "investigating" Lilly Kane's murder, representatives from the Watchers Council threw their weight around. He was pressured to let Buffy and her mother leave town so they could head for Sunnydale, where the Council needed their slayer to be. It didn't matter to Lamb that Buffy never knew. He hated feeling like his authority wasn't total.

Currently, he didn't find her so cute. "See this badge?"

Her flippant reply? "If it’s the blurry, then yes. I've had this eye thing since I was four and--"

She'd obviously been around Veronica Mars.

"Shame." His sympathy was as false as you could get. "Lucky for me, it doesn't change the fact that, right now? I'm allowed to take you in for verbally threatening a police officer."

He grabbed her arm--that was a mistake. Forced her to knee him in the groin.

"Sorry! Knee slipped," Buffy said as he collapsed to the sidewalk.

Weevil had been walking up, and was highly entertained.

"There was wrong touching. You saw, right, Weevil?" she asked.

"Whole street did. Clear as day," he confirmed with a smirk. "His conduct was highly unbecoming for an officer of our fine county."

"Will?" She had to check

"He was definitely naughty," spoke Willow, and the three of them watched him hobble painfully into his car, taking what remained of his dignity and driving off. "I can't believe you did that! Sure, he was a poop-head, but...you're the S-L-A-Y-E-R."

"Not here I'm not," Buffy said, and it was the truth.

God that felt good.

"Isn't like I staked him. He'll just need ice; lots and lots of ice." She gave quick introductions, then. "Weevil, Willow; Willow, Weevil. Say that three times fast."

"Hi," Willow said to him, somewhat shyly. "I, um, like your tattoos…they're very...arty."

"Gracias," he winked, and she blushed. "You lookin' for me, Hazel Eyes? Or are you just lookin’ for the best place to get your taco stuffed?"

Buffy shook her head at that. "We wanna know something."

"After the show I just got to see? For you? I'm an open book."

"Yay for us," she smiled briefly, then got serious. "Yesterday, Logan and Veronica were in his car when someone blew out the back window. With a shotgun.

“Veronica thought she heard a motorcycle driving away," she laid out the back story. "Was it one of your guys? And in case you missed-- _Veronica_ was in the car."

 

________

 

"A.I. jumps for the three..." Wallace commentated on his own play from inside his own house, where he, Xander and Oz were competing in "NBA Live 05."

The male Sunnydalians were on the same team. Cordelia was tanning on the beach somewhere.

"...Nothin' but net!” he exclaimed. “You feel this controller? Burnin' up so much I can't hold it; that's how on fire I am."

"I don't get it," Veronica called to them from the porch, where she was sitting with Mac. "There're plenty of actual, live, basketball courts around on which to trash talk _and_ show off physically to we of the fairer sex...who might just swoon."

"Yeah, but, two of us are extremely pigmented. And pigmented men can't jump. The movie said….and movies have never lied to me," replied Xander. "Except 'Meatballs.' Damn you, Bill Murray."

"We just don't like to," Oz said after Xander weirdly didn’t elaborate, referring back to the jumping skills of his race.

Veronica gave up. "Then please, flick away."

 

________

 

Outside, she turned to Mac. "What am I doing here? Other than disturbing that slumber Wallace’s mom and my dad were enjoying--in the same bed--thereby forcing them to flee."

She closed her eyes, and then opened them a few seconds later. "Nope, not dead yet."

"You're here because you're hiding from Logan while your Love-AH," Mac said, doing an impression of Rachel Dratch's character in that SNL sketch, "hits up the leader of a biker gang for info. To try and protect you."

She was a little jealous, truth be told. "You're so lucky."

"Does Tina Fey know she's losing you as president of the Neptune chapter of her fan-club?" Veronica asked mock-seriously.

"Hey, I use whatever quote best fits at the time," Mac explained her selection process. "Tina understands that, and she's cool with it. That's what makes her Tina."

Veronica smirked. "So that's it? No strained back-and-forth? No, 'How to Say Nay to Gay God's Way' pamphlet? Nothing even a _little_ condemning?"

"Um, Veronica," Mac was saying low, "I run the Pirate's S.H.I.P. message board. Student, Homosexual, Internet, Posting?"

Veronica was surprised. "There's a...?" She hadn't even known. "Does that mean you're--?"

Mac answered the half-questions with, “I'm just their tech-for-hire. But nobody else from school knows about the site except the people who're supposed to, so you can't say anything."

It was Veronica's turn to nod. “And my first line of questioning?”

"I already told you. Other than rewinding through every conversation we've ever had to see if you were hitting on me...like I care who you’ve got a crush on,” Mac said to her with a grin. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t hate you. ‘Cause I do. Buffy, too. You guys work _way_ too well."

"We do, don't we?" Veronica had to admit, smiling. "Thanks, Mac. But I have a confession to make."

Mac looked at her, confused.

"When you told me how many RPMs your hard-drive cycled? I was so tempted to skip right to rounding Second with you."

After Mac laughed, they listened to the boys again.

"When are you gonna go 'Teen Wolf,' and start making this a game?" Wallace said to Oz.

"He would," Xander answered for his laconic friend, "but we all know whose territory it is. He has too much respect for Michael J. Fox to even think about goin’ there."

"It's true," validated Oz.

Veronica's cell rang. For the fifteenth time, it was Logan. And for the fifteenth time, she let him talk to voicemail.

"So is there a next phase of your plan?" Mac wondered.

"I had a plan?" Veronica wondered back. "Why didn't somebody tell me that?"

She had a very strong feeling that Logan, Dick, and Cassidy burned that pool, but she didn't want to accuse him. She also knew she had to end things if he was involved...and because she wanted to be dating Buffy. Pretending otherwise while they were together was unfair. She had let it go on too long, and the guilt was eating away. She was just procrastinating.

The phone rang again. This time it was her dad. Calling from home.

"Hi, Dad..." Her eyes went wide. "He's in our living room? Right now?...No, I'll take care of it...Did Alicia leave?..." She sighed. "I'm really sorry, Dad. I know I completely ruined your morning...Yeah, be home in five minutes."

She got up and walked off the porch, heading for her LeBaron.

Mac stood up, prepared to follow. "Want me to come with you?"

"Someone should stay here and keep the testosterone in check ‘til Mrs. Fennell gets home." Veronica got in her car.

"Are you at least gonna call and tell Buffy?"

"I think I can break up on my own--it's not like I haven't had the practice. On both sides." Veronica turned the key. "I know the steps well."

Mac watched the car drive away.

 

________

 

Keith stood just outside the apartment. He was giving Logan and his daughter just as much privacy as he felt comfortable with. He believed in not punishing a son for the sins of his father, but when that son was involved with Veronica, he felt okay about bending that belief.

Recent events made him consider getting in the middle. Such as criminal activities in which Logan might’ve had a part, the way he frantically banged on the apartment door twenty minutes ago, asked where Veronica was, and then sat on the couch and called her with a tone Keith didn't like. Thankfully, Veronica seemed to be in the middle of cutting him loose.

Logan wasn't taking it very well.

"I'm not asking if it was you..." Veronica was telling him vaguely, because she knew Keith was listening and had a duty to tell Lamb about anything unlawful. "...even though we both know the answer. And seeing how we do, it’s funny that you don't seem very conflicted about what happened."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Logan asked in response.

"It means, I don't think you want this to stop," she replied. "It means I think you'd be happy if it got worse. I think you don't care about what it could do to Neptune, or about what you could be bringing down on yourself."

There was a pause.

"And it means I can't be your lifeline, because if you don't wanna save yourself, what's the point? I wanted to be there for you, but I can't just cast a blind eye, pretend everything’s fine, and wait around to clean whatever your latest wounds are this week. You know that isn’t me, Logan. I’m sorry."

" _Fine_?" Logan's voice rose, and Keith tensed. "My mom is dead! My girlfriend is dead! My dad is a murderer! And the only person I still care about is dumping me. Nothing is ever gonna be fine!

"How stupid do you think I am, Veronica? Did you think I wouldn't notice?" Then he just went too far. "Thought her hair was getting shorter. And she better start biting those nails, 'cause y'know, _ouch_."

Keith was too focused on the situation to react to what Logan implied.

"Yes..." Veronica admitted slowly. "I have feelings for Buffy. Can't help that they've been there, and I don't blame you for being angry, because I should've had the guts to do this sooner. I'm sorry for that too," her voice turned icy, "but don't ever--"

Logan let out a frustrated yell, and then Keith heard the lamp break. That was it.

"Oh, it's so great that you're s--" Logan was cut off by his now ex-girlfriend’s father bursting into the apartment and shoving him up against the wall.

"You don't talk to my daughter that way. You're leaving now and you're never coming back," Keith instructed him, then grabbed shirt collar and led him outside, where Buffy and Willow were hurrying to the door.

When Logan was freed, he yanked down on his shirt and gave Buffy a cold stare. Her stare in return communicated, "Don't." He kept walking.

The girls followed Keith back inside, where Veronica got up off the couch into the arms of her dad. She felt Buffy looking at her, while Willow looked at everyone. When the father-daughter embrace broke, Veronica went to stand by Buffy and clasped hands at their sides.

Buffy was still trying to catch up, but was getting the gist.

Keith looked at both teenagers expectantly. "Is there something you two wanna tell me?"

Willow had snuck out of there, deciding it was best to get a soda from the machine just then.

 

________

"Is there?" Veronica posed sincerely to her oldest friend.

"I...are you ready?" Buffy returned. "A lamp was just sacrificed. Do you really wanna plunge in right away?"

"Know it was; I was there," Veronica remarked in her smart-alecky manner. "But I suffered through it to plunge. So...I am if you are."

Was Buffy ready? Her mind went back to her talk with Willow, who thought that speaking Angel's name brought back that familiar pang. And it hadn't. Not even a pinch.

For the first time, Angel hadn't been hovering. Well, he hadn't been hovering during the two kisses either, but she didn't count those, because kissing shut off a person's brain. No matter what.

Veronica was her sole thought. She'd moved on. Like everything else, it came to her in hindsight, but at least hindsight only took about forty minutes instead of nine years this time.

She would never stop feeling horrible about what she did to Angel, but neither of them had known what would happen. They loved each other, so they expressed it. That’s what people who loved each other did.

Weevil was right--Angel would want her happy. Not blaming herself for what had to be done. Those were the choices a slayer had to make so someone else wouldn't have to.

She'd kissed him and told him goodbye, and was finally ready to mean it. Goodbye to before, hello to what was ahead. She was starting over, like her mother intended to do. When she got home, she'd start over with her, school (hopefully), and the night job, which she'd do better.

But at the moment, she was starting her love life over. With Veronica Mars. If Keith Mars didn't kill her, of course.

"I'm very 'are,'" confirmed Buffy with a half-grin.

Then Veronica grinned, and then Buffy grinned some more, and then Keith "ahem'd."

"This feels like stalling," he observed.

"No, it's not. Honest," his daughter promised him.

"Really not." Buffy nodded, backing her up. "We just weren't officially--"

"--a couple before--"

"--and now we are."

"Do I wanna know what you were unofficially?" he asked.

They looked at each other, trying to decide.

Veronica eventually volunteered, "Friends with benefits?"

That look she usually got when her father implied things about him and Alicia to mess with her? He donned it now, gesturing for her to go no farther. Now he knew how it felt.

" _Oh_. No. Not _those_ benefits," she said immediately.

Buffy’s face wondered if she’d gone crazy. "That was...she should've picked a phrase that's better.

"We were just, discovering. Discovering where a thing we were feeling...might come from. By talking. And some kissing. _Just_ kissing. Network TV kissing. Twice."

"At most, Basic Cable," Veronica added in full disclosure. "Because one lasted somewhat--"

Buffy couldn't understand it. "Why’re you being not helpful?"

"He's gonna know we're lying," Veronica defended herself. "Ex-cop? If we give him the whole truth, that earns us brownie points come sentencing."

"In theory," Buffy amended to the logic.

Keith wasn't saying anything--in fact, he looked lost in thought.

"You're not about to tell us you saw this coming, are you?" asked Veronica.

It threw him a bit. "Wouldn't it be easier if I had?"

"Maybe," Veronica said, "but so far? Almost everyone in Neptune has seen it but us. And our craw's had just about enough of getting repeatedly stuck with that info."

Buffy nodded in agreement. "It would just be refreshing if you didn't."

"Then I'm making your day...I didn't. Looking back though, maybe I should have." He went over and sat in the chair, and gestured to the couch. "Sit. And watch the shards." From the lamp.

They complied, waiting patiently for him to speak.

"So you wanna...go out. As something other than friends."

"Something other than _just_ friends, yeah,” confirmed Buffy. 

“That's the idea," Veronica supported.

"You're both sure this is what you want?" he continued. "Because you'll probably have to put up with lots of...unkind words, from people you're gonna have to see every day. Inside and outside of school. And it won't stop there. Better be prepared for that."

"Most people already think we're freaks, Mr. Mars," Buffy explained to him. "We're generally, you know, avoided."

“Like a plague,” Veronica smirked. "All comments, biting and otherwise, are said behind our backs at a safe distance. And the only people whose opinions matter, don't care."

"Except Xander and Wallace. But that's only 'cause they haven't found out yet," Buffy added.

"We're blond, what some may describe as 'hot,' and we like to make out...they should fall in line no problem."

"Well," Keith took a deep breath, "I appreciate not being the last to know." Beat. "What happens when Buffy has to go back to Sunnydale?"

"Phone calls?" Veronica suggested. "That stay well within the monthly-minute limit?"

"Visits?" Buffy put in the second option.

“There’s always Mexico. Thirty years of fugitives can’t be wrong."

"We know it's something we'll hafta deal with; but this is our first, official day...haven't gotten there yet," answered Buffy.

"I meant that there's a dangerous line of work waiting for you back home," Keith said, and let that settle a minute. "Here's what I know--I like how my daughter is when you’re around. She smiles more."

"So you don't like me usually?" Veronica joked.

"It's my fault you learned how, but Buffy's helped you remember what it's like _not_ to be cynical and jaded," he clarified. "After Lilly died and you got stuck with the fallout from my choices, I watched you grow up way too fast. I hated that you couldn't be that happy kid anymore, whose biggest problem was convincing me to build her science projects.

"But I've been seeing her again, and I'm glad. Worried she wasn't coming back,” he smiled.

"My happiness level has been above average lately," she acknowledged. "Was that a stamp of approval?"

"Hearing that's been my main goal as your parent, so...I can't say no."

They sighed in relief, but he wasn't finished yet.

He looked at Buffy. "I know you almost as well I know my daughter, and you've looked out for her since you were four, all of which exempts you from interrogation. But if a day ever comes when you’re around and she’s no longer smiling? There will be no possible escape from my fatherly reaction." He gave her a moment to process. "Acknowledge."

Buffy sat up straighter, fearful and respectful. "Acknowledging."

"Guess that means we're done." He got up, patting his pocket to make sure his keys were there. "I have to go to the office. There's paperwork I've been...putting off. I'll be back in a little while."

He opened the door. "Oh, two more things...Buffy has to call her mother and tell her the good news, and she's not sleeping in your bedroom anymore."

Then they were left alone. He didn't say so, but they had a feeling it was on purpose. Buffy was kind of blindsided by the fact that she'd have to drop another bombshell on her mom, but she worked her way back.

"Uh, Weevil didn't know anything about the gunshot. He's gonna try to find out; I believed him." Then she grinned. "And Lamb's never having kids."

Veronica laughed. "You didn't."

"Did," Buffy promised. "He shouldn'ta grabbed me. And after what he said when you went to tell him about--?"

Someone’s lips cut her off.

"Shutting up now," she promised again.

Veronica wound up backed against the arm of the couch. Buffy positioned herself over her new girlfriend, maximizing the goodness of "Kiss Session #3." They were quite skilled at this part.

Things needed discussing, and they still hadn't had a first date technically, but they didn't really give a dam--

"How did he...?" Willow walked in with her caffeine-free Coke, because her and caffeine didn't mix, and saw. "Wow. I mean, um...wow." She blinked. "I'll just...take Backup for a...bye!"


	8. Eight

A couple blocks down from Veronica's apartment complex, the group was on the beach for Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Oz's last night in Neptune. "Dingoes Ate My Baby" played at the Pit Saturday and Sunday night, and the rest of the band got a ride back to Sunnydale from the two whole groupies who followed them on the road. In a few hours, Oz was driving back his van with their equipment, Willow riding shotgun so she didn't have to listen to the lust bunnies.

They were seven people among about a hundred on the beach, having a mostly informal, neighborhood, "Independence Day" bash. There was a bonfire, and fireworks going off every now and then, in between the patrols of Neptune's finest. Veronica was snapping shots of all this with her camera, Willow and Oz walking with her through the crowds.

"Impressive lens," he commented.

Veronica smirked. "Thanks, Oz--I like to think so."

"How come you're taking pictures again?" Willow hadn't worked that out yet.

"Because I couldn't bring myself to break our V.P.'s heart; he looked so, adorably hopeful. He wants you to _believe_ he's stony and unflappable, but inside? There's this fragile, little boy who only wants some love. Who could say no?"

Willow was still confused. "The Vice-President?"

"Eh, I'd call _that_ less adorable and more...constipated," Veronica told her. "Vice Principal Clemmons."

Well, that made more sense.

"Last Tuesday, when I was still with..." She didn't have to say the name. "...I, uh, had lunch with him because he's taking summer classes, and as soon as I set foot on campus, the Man had me cornered, begging for candids of students celebrating America's birth. He wants a front-page for the 'Back-to-School' issue of the Navigator.

"I tried to warn him his definition of 'teenage celebration' was probably written by someone in the '50s wearing _thick_ , rose-colored glasses..."

"'Ronnie!" Dick Casablancas called her name, coming over holding a plastic cup in his hand.

Veronica sighed and shook her head. "Isn't this what the upper-crust would call, 'slumming it'? The beach with the 24-karat sand is all the way over yonder."

"Uncle Sam says we're all rich today--on patriotism,” he declared. “Yellow, brown, uh, darker brown...and white trash."

He gave her a "finger gun," and she gave him a not really amused smile back.

"Beer is beer, no matter what the color of your keg."

"Poignant," Oz said sarcastically, but because it was him, you couldn't really tell.

"The Smurf gets what I'm sayin'." Dick used his beverage cup to point at the blue-haired Oz. "It's all in the name of 'Four on the Fourth,' anyways."

"Like you hafta go to four different parties before midnight?" Willow tried to deduce.

"Close. I hafta pass out at four different parties before midnight. Where's the challenge, you ask? Keeping score of how many I’ve already been to, and not totally blacking out ‘til the finish line." He outlined the simple yet complicated goal. "Pretty sure this is stop number dos."

"And you're facing this Herculean task all alone?" Veronica wondered with some (sarcastic) surprise.

"Stag all the way," he confirmed. "Tried to get Logan to make the rounds but, he hasn't been feeling it since you went all 'Heche' on him. Didn't she like, get bored or whatever?"

Veronica felt anger begin to rise.

Dick held up his free hand. "Hey, both know Logan's seriously better off."

She attempted to go be elsewhere, but he wouldn’t shut up.

"Whoa, wait...in the spirit of the night, maybe Buffy and me oughta finally work out the tension, so you guys can...” He stopped speaking just long enough to play “porn guitar.” “Trust me, V, you don’t want her bringing any regrets into the sack. And you could hang out the whole time. In case she needs help--“

“--raising Old Glory to full mast?” she finished for him, barely containing her now-seething anger.

His dopey grin didn’t help matters. “Just pretend I'm that ‘special friend’ you keep stashed with your, you know, woman junk. Except like, realer."

"Shucks. Can't."

Veronica's arm made the appropriate motion as she said this, and she then blinded him by snapping a picture and letting the flash go off in his face. Before he could recover, she took her Taser out of her bag, and shocked him to the ground with it.

Yep. That was enough pictures.

She, Willow and Oz started heading back the opposite way.

"He's not going on the front page, is he?" Willow blushed.

"I'm betting someday," her boyfriend said without a doubt.

Of course, he didn't say which front page.

Dick's words about getting bored, even if he was an idiot, made Willow remember she had something to say. "Veronica?"

"Yeah, Willow?"

"If you hurt Buffy, I will beat you to death with a shovel." Willow's "resolve face" was present. Then she smiled. "A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend."

She and Oz walked ahead of the flabbergasted Veronica, who, when she returned from the visual place said, "That was scarier than Wallace...and possibly Dad."

 

________

 

"All right! Who doesn’t love a good share? Just gimmie a second to digest,” said Xander to Mac and Buffy, pointing away. “...Maybe uh, maybe more than a second. Maybe over there."

He was just told about the new couple, and Mac confirmed.

But he wasn’t moving. “Yep, right over there."

Wallace pulled him away. "'Cuse us."

If Veronica and Buffy had told them together, they would’ve just stared at the two girls for fifteen minutes, imagining. And then one of the girls, or both, would’ve felt the need to seek a violent resolution. This was safer.

While the boys got into a two-man, football huddle some feet away from their claimed encampment on the beach, Buffy and Mac watched with some curiosity. Cordelia watched with wariness.

"Do you think I broke them?" Buffy wondered.

"If you didn't, I'm willing to," Cordelia swore, keeping an eye on her boyfriend's reaction.

Mac said, "I thought I broke Willow; she didn't know what a 'Purity Test' was...which is pretty damn pure."

"Oh no," Buffy gasped, trying not to smile. "You told her?"

"You're the one who told her to ask me how I afforded my car," Mac reminded her.

"That's...okay, true, but I thought you were gonna be vague about it, and just say you did a thing kids were willing to pay money for. Not go off-cliff with.”

Buffy received an odd look, and sighed. "What happened?"

Mac grinned. "Nothing really...other than her taking it."

Buffy's jaw unhinged. "Willow took...? No. _Willow_?"

Cordelia was just as bowled over. " _Rosenberg_? Red hair? Wears overalls from OshKosh B'Gosh?"

"Fear of frogs?"

"Hand to the 'Cloud Hippie'," Mac gestured appropriately. "After she stopped hyperventilating, she said she was gonna be a senior, that she was great at tests, and it was time she faced her fears. Of sex."

"She said the word 'sex'?" Shocks just kept coming for Buffy.

"Well, her eyes did," admitted Mac. “You had to be there.”

"Um," Buffy hesitated, but then asked, because she had to, "what'd she score?"

Mac held out her hand and smiled wide.

Buffy's eyes narrowed at the implied extortion. "Rats."

Cordelia started reaching into her purse, but Buffy slapped her hand.

" _No_."

 

________

 

In the huddle, Xander and Wallace were still conferring.

Xander asked quietly, "So our ears...they definitely _weren’t_ fooled, right? It wasn’t a wax issue? Because sometimes I'll just be moseying, when outta nowhere...bam! 'Buffy's Gay! Buffy's Gay With Cordelia! No! With Willow!' Then I flog myself in harsh, harsh punishment."

"Please don’t ever explain what that means," requested Wallace. "But this ain't that. No doubt in my mind," he spoke for himself. "We heard what we heard, X."

They took a moment to smile and appreciate this development, but then Xander had to address their problem.

"What play do we call here? It’s-it’s all about words and the careful choosing of. Or else Buffy'll probably break our legs. One bone at a time."

"Or we step back, don't say anything, she _still_ breaks ‘em, and Veronica juices us up with 50,000 volts. 'Cause they'll think we're gettin'...preoccupied," Wallace added.

"Big ol' duh. And _then_ my girlfriend's gonna run me down with her car," Xander said, and they both knew there was nothing they could or couldn't say to make this go well. "We're screwed."

"So screwed," Wallace agreed, feeling his heart rate go up. "But I got your back if you got mine."

"Together we stand?"

"Divided we fall."

Taking a deep breath, Xander made it official. "1-2-3..."

And in unison, "Break."

 

________

 

"So, and pardon the pun," Veronica began to ask as she went to her girlfriend upon return, "was it a hard sell?"

"Now I don't think I wanna know the answer." Buffy made an "eww" face.

"Yeah, no way does that deserve a pardon," Mac advised, making a similar expression. "You hang it with a crappy rope? Then let it choke to death. For days."

The new couple kissed just as Xander and Wallace rejoined them all, and the males were stopped cold. When looked at expectantly, they were too glazed over to respond. Lightning could have stuck them dead right then, and they would've gone happy. Finally blinking, they looked at each other.

"That's...that's...so not fair!" Xander said to him. "They're right...with the... _there_ -ness. Nobody could fight that."

"What about the Village People?" Mac inquired. "Andy Dick? Rip Taylor? Bruce Villanche?"

"I stand by my sentence."

"Preaching to an ex-choirboy," Wallace understood. "We gotta go. 'Fore it's too late."

Xander nodded. "'The Fennel' speaks a wise truth." He pronounced "Fennel" like the sausage. Then ran away. "Best'a luck!"

"Dang! Wait up!" Wallace took off after him. "And call me that again? I take you _down_."

Once they were a good distance away, Cordelia glared at the blondes. "Thanks so much for the 'lipstick and butch' PDA--now I have to go kill my boyfriend," she sighed and started to walk. "Way to be considerate of other people."

"'Considerate'?" Willow repeated incredulously, trailing after her. "You and Xander...it's-it's like naked stuff! But with clothes!"

Cordelia smirked. "Now we know how you answered _that_ question on the purity test. Do you watch Cinemax alone, or is Oz there?"

Willow looked back at Mac, hurt.

Mac went to keep pace. "I didn't tell them anything!"

Veronica and Buffy looked at Oz. He looked back at them.

"Go," they told him.

"Thanks," he replied, hurrying to catch up.

"Our friends are strange," Buffy decided once her eyes couldn't follow them down the beach anymore.

“Funny you should mention that,” Veronica segued, "Does Willow threaten all of your significant others with a shovel?"

 

________

 

"I won't get bored," said Veronica without preamble as she and Buffy walked the surf away from the party noise.

Buffy's eyebrows shot up in question. "O...kay. I guess I...feel better now?"

"Know what? I never brought it up." Veronica tried to erase it. "Just something Dick said."

Buffy immediately went into "fight mode." "Where is he?"

"Easy, Biff," Veronica said calmingly. "It's been handled already. I should know just to listen to the voices in my head when he starts talking, anyway."

"Why, what do they say?"

"To burn things," Veronica answered nonchalantly. "And that we should go on a date tomorrow night after work."

"I like whichever voice said the second thing," Buffy told her. "The first, not so much."

Veronica nodded. "Yeah, that one's kind of a scamp. We can be glad he's the submissive type.

"So we'll call your mom in the morning, go do our shift, and then you can pay for me to eat...sound good, Butch?"

"'Lipstick,' you mean," smiled Buffy sweetly, in a way that wasn't sweet at all. "Think you're backwards."

"Am I?" Veronica pretended to think it over. "No...no, I don't believe I am."

"You are if you ever," Buffy yanked the camera out of Veronica's hand and ran a bit with it, "want this back!"

"All my voices? Out for blood." Veronica stood there taken aback. "Who just goes and fondles a girl's several hundred dollars worth of Nikon without an okay?"

Buffy took a picture.

"Better smile. We have memories of coupledom to capture. _Happy_ memories! Can't be bored of me yet, Marsipan."

"You're lucky you have a real purdy face, Dumbers, that's all I hafta say," Veronica said faux-begrudgingly, watching some fireworks explode before chasing after her.

There was no getting bored of this.


	9. Nine

"I don't wanna be one of those girlfriends who nag," Buffy said, walking into Veronica's bedroom, "but what's taking so long?"

"I'm trying to decide...stuff the bra, or don't stuff the bra?" Veronica said distractedly, studying her flat-chestedness in her mirror. While shirted. "Because if you plan on feelin’ me up at some point during the evening, I wouldn’t want your hands to be entirely let down."

Buffy came to stand behind her. "I'm not exactly big with the cleavage, either."

"Well crap," announced Veronica, turning around so she and Buffy were face-to-face. "I was _going_ to pet me a rack...heavily. That was the whole idea. Otherwise, why even update my MySpace profile?”

“I can stuff,” said Buffy quickly. “Just be kinda sad. And kinda ruined after pet one.”

"If you really loved me, you'd go under the knife. I hear they do wonders with soy now; it’s not just for vegans anymore," Veronica quipped, and then both realized what word she'd used.

Interesting choice for someone who perfected the art of "emotional unavailability."

"Just an expression. Don't read into it. Contrary to popular opinion, I don't move _that_ fast."

"Don’t read into your uber-confident ego? Knew already. It leads to scary. Let’s first date first, then more dates, and maybe..." smiled Buffy.

She wouldn't exactly hate it at all, but the last person she loved aloud...didn't end well.

"I'm wondering if I even remember how; my last date happened in a cemetery," she continued.

"From what I remember? Most dining establishments don't really see much profit in catering to the 'Goth' crowd,” Veronica informed her, “so the ambiance skews more mainstream. But, we could wait ‘til October--when it's more expected. Whatever makes you comfortable. We'll muddle you through."

She sounded accommodating, but she was more being a smart ass. Therefore, she kissed her girlfriend to avoid retaliation.  

"‘Muddler Buffy,’ that’s me," grinned Buffy happily, kissing back. "I am so glad your dad’s in another state right now."

"It was super nice of Tiny to hop the Pen wall this morning, wasn't it?" Veronica agreed. "It's like 'Prison Break'...if Wentworth Miller were forty-five, three-hundred pounds, pug _and_ fug, ugly."

"How'd he hop the wall if--?"

"Just another expression," Veronica clarified. "But Dad's spur-of-the-moment road trip still didn't spare us the 'List.'"

No drinking, no getting arrested, no being out past midnight. When he called at 12:01, if they weren't safely back at the apartment and couldn't prove it, he would put a bounty out that forgot to specify "Dead" or "Alive." No using their friends as false alibis. And no "funny business." That was emphasized.

It continued, mostly with variations on the same rules.

"I liked the 'List' better when it was Duncan's pain," Buffy stated unequivocally. She spotted the laptop. "Are Willow and Mac still IMing?"

"Ten minutes ago, the answer was 'yes'," Veronica smiled--those crazy nerds. "And that was the conversation in full. So much for the pre-date pep talk from our nearest and nerdiest,” she lamented. "I think Oz infected her with 'monosyllabitis.'"

Buffy nodded. "Goes away in a few days. Listen to a really wordy song; works for me. Like that R,E.M one."

Veronica grabbed her purse and keys. "Rundown--jean-casual, no on the tissue-packing, and Bennigan's."

"Check," Buffy confirmed. "But Bennigan's has ambiance? Since when?"

They walked out of the room.

"Since the days of 'Fat Albert,' when the nation first fell in love with that kitschy, 'junkyard treasure trove' theme," Veronica elaborated, opening the front door. "Who am I, Rockefeller?"

"Aha! You _are_ paying," Buffy read between the lines. "That means--"

"--not a farking thing." Veronica looked at her sleeping dog on the couch. "I'll just post a sign, so all the burglars know to be extra quiet when they clean out the place."

She locked up, and they made their way down to the ground level of the complex.

"I may not've regular-dated in a while, but the person who drives, pays." Buffy wasn't letting go of this. "It's traditional."

"Sure is...except when she’s the only one the state of California has OK’d to sit at the ‘Big Wheel,’" Veronica retorted faux-cockily.

"Next time we talk to my mother, you can tell her why I need to finally take the test, then."

 

________

 

_~Mars Investigations, That Morning~_

 

_It was 8:30. Keith had left about an hour ago. The girls were in their "Hut" uniforms, still fresh from showers, sitting on either side of the reception desk. They chose to do the call here, because "Mars Investigations'" had a speaker phone. Veronica didn't want Buffy to have to do this alone._

_"Hi, Mom...did we wake you?" Buffy asked, trying to maintain a high level of confidence._

_"Buffy! Hi, honey!" Joyce warmly responded. "No, I took the day off, and I've been up planting in the backyard. It was just so empty-looking, I thought, 'Why not?' Nothing's growing yet, but it should be by the time you see it. I hope," she chuckled breathlessly. "Who's 'we'?"_

_"Hi, Mrs. Summers," Veronica piped up. "You're on speaker."_

_"Oh, this is nice--how are you, Veronica?" asked Joyce. "Your dad says he's amazed at how you've been handling everything. I couldn't even imagine."_

_"I'm like a shark...'Always move forward,' that's my motto,” Veronica told her. “But I've been meaning to thank you for letting Buffy hang around. The migraines have been few and far between."_

_"For one of us, anyway," Buffy came back at her, and they stuck their tongues out at one another._

_"I'm glad you girls are having fun." They could hear the amusement in Joyce's voice. "I think all the kids are still home asleep, but they called Mr. Giles on their way back. They had a great time down there."_

_"And our permanent records call us 'anti-social'...hah," Veronica gloated._

_Buffy gave her girlfriend a look. "She means, 'probably.'"_

_Because it wasn't like they looked, or anything._

_"Don't you have work today?" Joyce suddenly remembered._

_"Yeah." Buffy just kept reminding herself to breathe through her nervousness. "We just wanted to call and say 'hey'...and...to tell you something."_

_"Something we feel real good about," added Veronica, feeling the nervousness herself._

_"What she said," Buffy swallowed. "And we’re hoping you'll also see the good. When we tell you what it is. Which we’re going to."_

_"Are..." Joyce began, but trailed off. "You're dating, aren't you?"_

_"Um..." This completely threw Buffy's rehearsal out the window. "We will be later."_

_"How'd you know?" Veronica wondered._

_"I was a teenager once. And I’m having a very frightening flashback to when I tried to tell my parents I..." Joyce hesitated. "...liked a boy you don’t need to hear about."_

_“Hear about what?” Veronica graciously let Buffy’s mother off the hook._

_Her natural curiosity was quelled in order to get in good with the parent. But their conversation awkwardly stalled. The "Jeopardy" theme would've fit in nicely._

_Buffy couldn’t take it. She courageously ventured, "So whaddaya think?"_

 

________

 

"I'll trade you...three, 'Ultimate Nachos' for one, 'Cheeseburger Egg Roll,'" Veronica offered as they ate their appetizers/meal in a booth by the window.

They got a large sampler to share, and one other appetizer each besides.

"Throw in toppings, and it's a deal," haggled Buffy. "Ooh, and one must be fed to me."

"I feel we can do business," Veronica agreed to those terms with a smile.

She made the switch, but on the third nacho, she loaded it up with jalapeños, salsa and cheese.

"Hope you brought mints."

"You're evil," Buffy accused.

Veronica smiled wider. "And you’re nonspecific. We're learning so much about each other...isn't it great?"

She cleared her throat, telling her girlfriend to hurry up.

Buffy opened her mouth, the nacho was directed inside, and she chewed. Within moments, her eyes began to water, and she coughed. Luckily, Veronica was there in the clutch with water and straw. She also had the grace to look like she felt a little bad.

"Evil," reiterated Buffy, coughing some more.

Veronica clapped her hands together, and conversationally asked, "So how's the date going for you?"

"Best one ever." Buffy rolled her eyes, but then looked more sincere. "No, seriously? 'Cause I'm me, I keep waiting for the 'Bad' to happen, to be wigged, anything 'dark cloud-y,' but this feels...so not near that. M'still getting used to. And with my best friend."

Veronica knew what she meant. "Ain't just you. My dad was right--that girl from before Lilly's murder? Haven't been her in a long time. I'm jaded pretty much around the clock, and go outta my way to see that everyone's kept _at least_ a Paul Bunyan's arm length away.

“Wallace and Mac weaseled their way closer than most, but let's just say I don't usually have conversations like this with them. Don't open up, don't share, and it feels a little awkward when they're looking for a shoulder."

Buffy was on the same page. "We're _not_ who we were at fifteen and sixteen."

"Yet...here’s the odd. Suddenly you're back, and things 'Sixteen-Year-Old Veronica' knew how to do, are resurfacing in the elder cynic before you. There was _hugging_ when you showed up at my door. I don't hug anybody who isn't kin."

Veronica had a list of things she'd done with Buffy around, that she'd thought lost.

"At first I wondered, 'Am I fooling myself, trying to recapture those days of yore? Picking up where we left off can't be this easy.' And then adding this," she gestured between them, meaning their coupling, "felt kind of inevitable. Those girls we were aren't ever coming back, but--"

"--past and present meshed at a happy middle, and then went in a satisfyingly crazy direction of new?" Buffy cut her off, anticipating the end.

"Then there’s that." Veronica shook her head, amazed at how they put the period on each other’s sentences. "When I said my happiness level’s been above average, I meant it." She brought her thumb and forefinger just short of touching. "I’m about that close to skirting ‘giddy’s’ edge.

"My cynicism thinks I'm only putting blinders on, but I know Neptune. I still see what she is; you just haven't let her drag me down again," she blushed a bit here. "Must really like you."

Because of the G-rated, family environment, they had to settle for their feet finding one another under the table.

"Must really like you, too," smiled Buffy, and then she frowned. "Home's gonna be hard."

With that depressing thought, they each ate a mozzarella stick in silence.

Finishing hers, Veronica asked, "What does happen after this summer? And as much as your being elsewhere will blow--heaps, in case you were wondering--not talking about that. It'll work itself out.

“But soon, we’ll be forced to walk Life’s tightrope solo again. Then what do we do?"

"What we have to," Buffy said with a shrug. "Even if we don't, like ourselves much sometimes."

Veronica sighed. "Also read as: 'Run back into the welcoming, cozy ruts that make us, us.'"

"Or maybe hope we don't forget what living outside our ruts was like for a few months,” suggested Buffy. "I'm not slaying and you're not sleuthing...but we both know it's kinda part of who we are now. When I save people and don't feel crushed by, I love being 'chosen.' Just like you love outsmarting people and making money at it."

"Indeed I do," Veronica admitted, recalling fond memories.

The watchword was covering up a truth that couldn't stay covered for long.

"Every time I stub my toe across that line, though..." It got difficult to look at herself in the mirror.

"My advice? Check for any other way worth trying, then go crossing," Buffy offered, thinking of her own experiences as she did. "If there isn't? Least you explored all options."

"Mm." Veronica looked thoughtful. "Thorough, rational...interesting approach."

Buffy smiled. "And anyway, if we start sliding into a bad place, we'll be a phone call away."

Veronica agreed with this also.

"But Sunnydale's two months thattaway," Buffy went on.

"When she's right..." Veronica let herself trail off, and sipped her Coke. "Hey, wanna play 'I Spy'?"

Buffy's eyebrows arched. "What're we spying?"

"Cheating spouses." Veronica's expression said, "What else?"

"This date just gets better and better," smirked Buffy, rolling her eyes again.

This was going to be a fantastic story to tell her mother.

 

________

 

_"Wait," Buffy said quickly into the phone, and to Joyce on the other end, "before you say anything, uh, just for perspective? I think you should know you dated a robot."_

_"I..._ what _?" Joyce audibly gasped. "Oh god. Ted. You let me date a robot?"_

_"I didn't know! At least not until I hit him with the frying pan..."_

_"How very 'Looney Tunes' of you," commented Veronica._

_"There was like a split-second. Had to improvise," Buffy told her girlfriend defensively._

_Veronica looked innocent. "I'm not judging your methods."_

_"Good. Glad."_

_Joyce cleared her throat to get their attention. "I guess I should be glad Veronica isn't like Angel."_

_Buffy couldn't think of anything to say, so she didn't._

_"Mr. Giles told me wha...who he was, Buffy," Joyce continued carefully._

_"Veronica knows about vampires, Mom; so does Mr. Mars. But I'm glad she isn't like Angel either."_

_Veronica then whispered with a mischievous grin, "Never know--I’ve been told my bite_ is _worse than my bark.”_

_Buffy mouthed, "What the hell?"_

_"Sounds like you're happy," spoke Joyce again._

_Thankfully, she hadn't heard that._

_"We are, Mrs. Summers," Veronica didn’t miss a beat._

_"And your dad must be all right with it, if you’re calling me," Joyce assumed._

_"Yeah, he is."_

_They could almost hear the woman thinking._

_"Do you girls wanna meet somewhere for lunch? Maybe on Thursday?"_

 

________

 

"Dude!"

"Dude!"

"Dude!"

"Dude!"

"Dude!"

" _Dude_."

"I guess you got a point there."

Buffy and Veronica quoted the dugout scene in "BASEketball" back and forth as they watched it on DVD. They were going to go to a movie, but there wasn't much to see other than "War of the Worlds," and they couldn't even stand Tom Cruise enough to sit there and make fun of him. So they came back to the apartment to finish their date.

A night stroll around Neptune wouldn't have been that safe. Or romantic.

Why "BASEketball?" It was the first R-rated movie their impressionable, eleven-year-old minds had been exposed to. Keith made the mistake of renting it and leaving it in the VCR, and it held a special place in their hearts. It was a small glimpse into the comic genius waiting for the "South Park" movie a year later.

After they laughed, Buffy said, "Um, by splitting dinner, the ‘butch’ question isn’t answered."

"Like the check, I'll go fifty-fifty," offered Veronica as her head lay in Buffy's lap on the couch. "Want me 'gumshoeing' again, I need to keep my girlish qualities handy."

"I don't want you to explain, do I?"

"It does involve the occasional stuffing," Veronica revealed.

Buffy sighed. "Was right--I didn't want."

She slid down, and Veronica slid up, so they were both lying beside one another.

"We're fifty'd," she accepted.

They went back to quoting the film.

"'That's him, Squeak,'" Veronica said. "'That's Tuttle.'"

"'He's been talking some serious _beep_ about you all night,'" Buffy self-censored the line like they used to.

They'd been too young to curse.

"'Yeah. He told everyone he caught you _beeping_ off in the bathroom before the game,'" Veronica smirked.

"'He saw that?!'" Buffy said her line, and they both chuckled. "Good first date."

"Bet your _beep_ it was."


	10. Ten

Joyce Summers sat in a small restaurant that was across the street from an outlet mall halfway between Sunnydale and Neptune. She'd gotten there early; Veronica and Buffy weren't here yet. She didn't know what she'd say, but she wanted to see for herself what Keith must have. She wanted to be as good a parent to Buffy, as he was to Veronica.

Her stomach did summersaults while she waited.

She hadn't come completely unprepared. She took a chance and asked Willow about them. Her daughter's friend stuttered and looked like a deer in headlights for the first minute or so, but once Joyce assured her she already knew, Willow backed up what she'd suspected--the girls were enjoying "new relationship" bliss, and even if she reacted badly, it wouldn't stop anything.

Here they came. Both nervous but trying not to show it, joking with one another. Veronica had her arm secure around Buffy's waist.

Truth be told, Joyce was glad they were nervous; it meant her taking this well mattered to them. She reached her hand up to flag them down. When they got closer, she stood from her chair, and Buffy wrapped her in a tight embrace.

The tears in her eyes must have seemed strange to everybody else in the restaurant, but she was hugging her daughter again, and they'd never understand what that meant. While Buffy smiled and wiped her eyes, Joyce felt compelled to hug Veronica also, who started off surprised, but whose hug back grew in strength.

Joyce could only guess, but Veronica had to be thinking about her own mother. The mother that abandoned her, and stole her college education to support a severe drinking habit. Joyce drank too much herself sometimes, but thankfully she wasn't anywhere near Lianne.

When she came to Neptune to go to college and Lianne Reynolds was her roommate, she spent many nights trying to get her over being dumped by Jake Kane. Then suddenly, Lianne was the twenty-four-hour party girl who dealt by getting drunk. But Joyce was the only one who saw her after.

Lianne was someone just trying to fill a hole. It was right before spring break that Keith came into her life (they'd gone to high school together, but she hadn't really given him the time of day then). That's when things began to turn around.

Joyce met Hank Summers not long after, and the two couples would remain together, and remain friends. Keith would become sheriff, Hank an excellent stock broker, and she and Lianne would live the lives of women married to powerful men. But Lianne never let go of Jake, not completely--that was the problem.

Veronica was not her mother. She was very driven, very sensible. And it was clear she was very into Buffy, as well.

As they sat down to lunch, they talked. About everyday things. Joyce could see the girls waiting for her to ask questions, but she just observed.

Buffy and Veronica acted like the friends they'd always been--ribbing each other, doing little routines only they seemed to get, making fun of their surroundings--they weren't calling attention to the fact that they were a couple. If you watched them for longer than five seconds though, you could tell. It wasn't something they could hide.

Part of the reason the girls got so close, was because of the wives she and Lianne had been, going to functions and parties all the time. Aside from the big events, they'd never made much time for their daughters. However, they’d had enough sense to see that their girls got along, and kept each other entertained in their mothers’ absence.

So Joyce felt somewhat responsible for where Veronica and Buffy found themselves now. It wasn't that she had any kind of moral objection (she'd been through college with Lianne, after all); it was just that same thing all mothers wanted for their daughters.

Marry, settle down, have kids. Make a better go of it than she had. And of course, she didn't want Buffy to have to face the moral objections of others.

But Joyce had no protective power there. Buffy was going to be eighteen, and she'd been saving the world since fifteen. If Joyce couldn't shield her child, what else was there to do except support her? For years she'd tried to be the parent she wasn't when Buffy was five, and got it all wrong. Whether she liked it or not, she'd missed five, and there was no going back.

Buffy was a teenager--a remarkable one--dating another remarkable teenager. Who happened to be a girl. Her best friend. She could do a lot worse, but couldn't do much better.

Taking her own wants for her daughter out of it, Joyce saw two people obviously good for each other. And as Veronica somewhat conveniently excused herself to the bathroom and squeezed Buffy's hand, she saw how much her daughter's chosen partner cared. Through that simple move.

It was the reinforcement Joyce needed. There was nothing bad here. Time to make a good parenting decision.

"So whaddaya think?" Buffy repeated her question from two days before.

"Well, Dawn's staying at Janice's, so I'm in no rush, and...I think I want dessert,” said Joyce, and then smiled, resting her hand on Buffy's arm. "You can tell Veronica it's okay, honey. She can come back now."

Buffy looked down at her chest, and saw the mic wire partially visible. "Oops."

"So how was your first date?"


	11. Eleven

A Saturday night in mid-July found the Marses, the Fennels, and the...um, Buffy, attending a baseball game at Sharks Field. Keith wanted to at least get in one game this season, because it would be the last before the team switched stadiums and this one was imploded to make more parking. Spending an evening at the ballpark with those who mattered most to him seemed a swell idea.

He sat in the stands wearing cap, jersey and glove, hooting and hollering like the passionate fan he was. It was a passion his company couldn't come close to equaling, but they smiled and indulged him. Who would believe that a grown man this loveably ridiculous cracked the murder case of the decade and had a tell-all book coming out in a couple of weeks?

Not his daughter, that's for sure.

"I'm suddenly hankering for peanuts and crackerjacks," she announced. "But I'm gonna need cutoff men to glove those wild spills."

Buffy and Wallace sat on either side of her and raised their hands, indicating that yes, they wanted to come along.

"Are you sure? 'Cause I don't care if I ever get back."

"I'll take that chance," responded Wallace.

"Ya-huh," agreed Buffy.

"A whole childhood of box scores and tee ball wasted. Did nothing stick?" Keith sighed disappointingly at his daughter as the kids stood up from their seats. "The 'cut off man' is the infielder who--"

"Yeah, don't care," Veronica cut him off with a grin, and looked at Alicia. "Give him some sugar while we're gone, will ya? Distract the man."

"I'll try my best," Alicia laughed, and then turned to her younger son next to her. "You want a hot dog, Darryl?"

He nodded silently several times, and she got money out of her wallet. "Would you mind?"

"Do we mind?" Veronica asked her cutoff men, who shook their heads. "It's unanimous. If there're no more requests, then we'll just..."

She waved off the cash, and pointed away.

"Walk softly, honey." That was Keith's way of saying "be careful," and that he and his lady friend were both fine.

"Always do." Veronica then gestured to her girlfriend. "Got my big stick right here."

As the trio squirmed and excused their way out of the row, Buffy grumbling, Alicia asked her date, "You're really okay with her and Buffy dating?"

"They both know what they're getting into, and I haven't seen Veronica like this in a long time. Buffy's...unique, and the best person for her right now," he explained. "So yeah, I am. There a reason I shouldn't be? Besides the biblical interpretations of people whose company I probably wouldn't enjoy very much anyway?"

"No, no..." she assured him. "It's just, very progressive of you, that's all. If it were my child, I don't know if I'd be as understanding. I'd like to hope so, but..."

"I don't think that's something you'll have to worry about, but if you saw they were happy--and it might take a while to get there--personally? I believe you would."

Next, he spoke in his "cool" voice. "However, _I'm_ just extraordinarily attuned and hip to the times in which we live."

"Oh, you're hip all right," she chuckled, and then kissed him.

"Why you always gotta be macking?" Darryl uttered abruptly.

Kids said the darndest things.

 

________

 

Buffy shook her head in disbelief. "Five dollars for a bottle of water."

"Three for a hot dog," Wallace complained with her.

"Three- _fifty_ for a pretzel."

How was a pretzel more than a hot dog?

"But eating away our paychecks together?" Veronica spoke up as they walked around the 360 degrees of consumer gouging that would make Adam Smith and Karl Marx both cry. "Priceless."

Wallace frowned. "Maybe to you, but Sack'n'Pack doesn't pay me enough for this."

"Right, because at Java the Hut, we do so drown in Benjamins," Veronica told him sarcastically.

Buffy smirked. "Who has time for when we're busy drowning in each other?"

Veronica leaned her head against her male friend's shoulder and pretended to sigh from being incredibly moved.

"My woman's so poetical," she dramatically announced. 

Wallace grinned. "So what did you two, fine ladies do for date number nine yesterday?"

"She fell, I watched,” answered Buffy. “As it happened again, and again, and...it-it was sort of never-ending. Her butt pretty much had hypothermia."

She fought her lips natural inclination to smile. "But no way was it ever laugh-worthy." Beat. "Um, except to the whole, pee-wee hockey team that got on-ice as we were leaving."

"Wait a minute...there's something _Veronica Mars_ can't do?" Wallace gasped in surprise, praying he didn't laugh. "I cannot believe what I'm hearin'."

Veronica gave them both her "stare of death."

"Sure, she skates with Olympic flair and has a decent center of gravity, but can her hands bug a Pinto as smooth as these can?" She showed hers off. "And I'll have you know, I can be graceful in ways she only _dreams_ of."

"Ouch. You're gonna tease her like that?" Wallace disapproved.

Buffy looked pitiful. "Yeah, you're gonna tease me like that?"

"If she doesn't keep certain tales to herself going forward, that's all I'm _ever_ gonna do to her," Veronica threatened with a smile.

"Does she think she has some kinda mystique that’s destroyable?" Buffy posed to Wallace with a smile all her own, but he abstained. "Y'know, that’s not just somewhere in her own brain?"

Veronica nodded as if to say, "Okay, if this is how you wanna play it..."

"Does she think anything is really scared of--?"

That second, people ran out of their sections, and into the concourse. It was bedlam. Instinctively, Buffy made sure the three of them stood tight together, as the riot erupted.

The cause, they'd discover later, was the ejection of star pitcher Miguel Arroyos for putting an illegal substance on the ball. Being Mexican, he was a town hero to his people. They didn't like that the umpire who threw him out, was white.

But what lit the fuse was some drunk asshole yelling a slur that wasn't very nice, then proclaiming it served Mr. Arroyos right. That he should be "sent back with the other illegals and stick to picking beans."

This was Neptune now. People were just looking for any reason to get violent, and Veronica, Buffy and Wallace were in the crossfire. They dumped their food and moved as a group.

"C'mon, it's too dangerous to try for an exit. We need to get to a bathroom, lock the door and wait ‘til this dies down," Buffy instructed, thinking like a slayer.

"My mom and Darryl," Wallace uttered concernedly.

"They're with Veronica's dad--he'll take care of 'em. I'm more worried about us." She then addressed her girlfriend. "You have your Taser?"

"That's the new plan, Stan," said Veronica, gripping it inside her bag, whose strap she moved from around her shoulder to around her neck.

She kept her other hand on the middle of Buffy's back, who replied, "Then let's slip out the back, Jack."

"Hey, don't need to discuss much; just get yourself free," Veronica completed.

"What the hell are you doing?" Wallace asked, looking at them like they'd gone nuttier than the inebriated people fighting.

"Paul Simon soothes my nerves during a riot, okay?" Veronica revealed for him. "There--another layer of mystique torn to shreds."

They ducked and weaved and pushed their way through the chaos until they saw a little boy get separated from his parents just as two, large gentlemen began brawling. Everyone else formed a wide circle around them, moving out the way. The combatants were both white, but looked like they might've shared the same cellblock at one time.

The little boy was crying in the impromptu ring, and the bald one was going to fall right back into him.

Before that happened, Buffy rushed in, grabbed the boy, gave him to Wallace, and then went back and put her foot on Baldy's throat, after he'd crashed to the ground.

"There's this sport? Called 'boxing'? S’on TV sometimes. Anyway, it lets you punch someone all you want, _and_ get paid to, even if you don’t win...long as you stay not brain-dead."

She pressed down harder, he gagged. "But when it happens non-officially, at places like now? People who didn't ask to be punched, just wind up getting hurt. Which makes me mad.

“You don't wanna make me mad; you wanna stop. Don't you?"

She took her foot off, but too soon. He immediately grabbed it and pulled, until she lost balance and fell. Just as he got up, she used her foot again, this time to give him a shot to the shin. While he collapsed to one knee, she flipped herself back up to standing, and without hesitation, round-housed him in the head.

He was out.

"There's always kickboxing, too," she commented to his unconscious form.

Veronica had taken care of the other, straggly-haired, "had a little too much fun in the 70s" guy with a stealthy shock to his back. Wallace came over as she crouched and held Taser over him.

"Jet Li couldn't even _interview_ with your girl's league, V...damn. And sorry, but she scared _me_? And I was on the sidelines." He was in awe.

Was Veronica’s face flushed?

"Really? She did something else to me entirely.”

Grinning half out of admiration and half out of that something else, her phone interrupted with ringing. She answered it with her free hand.

"Dad? Are you guys okay?...You did? Thank god." She gave Wallace a thumbs up. "Big sigh of relief on this end...Yeah, we're good...Nah, I don't think you'll have a hard time finding us..."

A few feet away, the mother, hugging her little boy, was thanking Buffy. "Could we, uh, follow you?"

Everyone who’d watched the fight now looked at her hopefully.

 

________

 

Later, after cops and stadium security got everything under control, Lamb arrested all the people he decided he didn't like the look of. With no help from the sheriff, conscientious security personnel who’d watched when that asshole instigated the ruckus, knew what seat he'd had, and were able to track him down via credit card. Of course, Lamb took the lion’s share of the kudos the next morning.

He also arrested a random, ethnic person involved in the rioting, and then put both men in front of the cameras, just to try and calm town tensions all around. It didn't do much, but it did enough.

Meanwhile, word spread about the teenage hero who broke up a brawl and rescued a small child. When it was learned she was staying with Keith Mars, forthcoming author and hero himself, business at Mars Investigations increased rather noticeably. So the girls were temporarily enlisted to help deal with the volume, and were taking time off from the Hut.

"No, Mr. Mars hasn't been asked by Mr. Arroyos to investigate..." Veronica was telling a citizen over the phone, who wanted the pitcher cleared of wrongdoing. "Well, I'm sure if he was framed, the League's investigation will uncover that...Again, I'm sorry we can't be of more help, ma'am...Have a nice day."

Hanging up, she exhaled tiredly. "Biggie was right--mo' money, mo' problems. First one? Exhaustion."

"Wanna switch?" Buffy was sitting at the reception desk opposite Veronica, trying to prioritize the new cases that were coming in. "Sorry...stuff I do doesn't usually make news back home; I'm in the 'coping' stage, too."

"I blame the book." Veronica got up and rounded the desk, going to sit on her girlfriend’s lap. "But don't sweat it."

She poked Buffy's nose. "Because I get to tell people that not only are my gal's gams worth the gander, but they're also life-saving, deadly weapons...cautiously used. This left my wild, teenage hormones greatly pleased, by the way."

"Didn't do it all myself--quick-thinking, dropping the other moron," smiled Buffy.

"At least _you_ noticed."

Veronica had gotten her first real glimpse of what a slayer could do, and saw that Buffy was without question meant for the role. Especially because she shied away from attention. It wasn't about that; it was about doing something right because she could.

Remembering the stories, Veronica thought back on them, and came away feeling a new respect for her friend and significant other. She smiled as they kissed, ignoring the phone. But she couldn’t ignore the next intrusion.

"The memories that could've been made. Tear," sighed Logan with false regret, suddenly in the office. "Oh well."

The girls stopped their session, and turned to him with annoyance.

"Tell me...who's the six, and who's the nine?" he asked.

"You're lucky my dad's on a case," Veronica said to him, trying to shake off being caught.

"Counting every one of my stars," he flippantly responded.

The phone still rang.

"Aren't you gonna get that? I'm sure it's a gold-digging house-frau _desperate_ for your services."

Veronica watched him warily, but went to pick it up.

"What do you want, Logan?" Buffy asked him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I just had to shake the hero's hand...you're all the buzz, Summers. This town finally has someone else to go 'watercooler' over." He stuck out his own hand, and she did nothing. "Moments like this are why I usually just step on olive branches."

Back behind the desk, Veronica was grinning. "Well howdy, Sheriff. How's the sac?...Um, you know, Sacks? That delightful hunk of deputy? Overstated 'stache?" Her grin went slightly evil. "What else pray tell would I have meant?"

She made a face. "Hang on. Keep it iced and I'll inquire." She covered the mouthpiece with her hand, and spoke to Buffy. "Apparently, Woody Goodman wants a photo-op with you and the Lambchop. Caption? 'Citizens and Law Enforcement Working in Harmony.' Big smiles, handshakes, good PR for the election...and so on. You in or out?”

"I'd say she's definitely out," Logan quipped.

Trying hard not to react to him, Buffy just shook her head firmly in the negative. "Does he know I'm not even a citizen?"

Veronica shrugged, then cleared her throat and got back on the phone. "It hurts my heart to hafta break this to you--just because of all we've been through together--but..."

"Probably for the best," Logan spoke again. "You being unfamiliar with the concept of a handshake and all."

"We need to chat," Buffy told him.

 

________

 

Out in the hallway, Logan leaned back against the wall beside the office door.

Buffy stood in front of him. "One free swing. That's all I’m giving."

"That's your idea of a chat?" he asked in confusion. "Did I miss when we swapped childhoods?"

"I know you blame me for breaking up you and Veronica, and since I am _partly_ in the why, go ahead," she elaborated on her offer. "Believe it or not, but you won't hurt me. You'd jump at the chance if I was guy-looking."

"Yeah, except you aren’t," he pointed out, and pushed off the wall. “Unlike my dad, I don't hit girls. No matter how...irked, they might make me."

"Fine, then um, irk verbally?" she requested of him. "Just get it over with."

"Got over it weeks ago. Honest injun. Maybe you're the one who needs closure," he suggested, and she looked skeptical. "Look, that day...really wish I didn’t know how to get there, y’know?"

He seemed legitimately frightened of becoming his father. "When I, uh, saw your name on the news, figured it was my excuse to come give that apology I owe," he continued. "She needed to get away from me, ‘cause, am what I am--she deserves better."

He smiled. "That's why it's too bad she's settling."

"Wow, was almost heartfelt," remarked Buffy, leaning against the wall as he had done. "So you're not angry at me? What about from before?"

"Let’s try again--‘Over.’ ‘It.’ Ask your eager, bittersweet little beaver," he advised, referring to Veronica. "But I'll bet I can find something to be irked off about."

"I don't want you to hurt yourself trying," Buffy jibed, and after a second, sighed. "Remember how you'd always complain to me when Lilly would randomly decide you didn't exist?"

"'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,'" quoted Logan. "Forgive my Dickensian slip."

"We were relatively close back then, was my point." She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well, 'back then' you weren't helping one of my ex-girlfriends 'she-bop' herself. Don’t see a reconciliation on Oprah showing up in the cards anytime soon."

He wasn't malicious, just stating a fact. "Que sera, sera...we finished?"

"Guess yes," Buffy nodded, now knowing where they stood.

Zero percent animosity, one-hundred percent indifference. Some friendships didn't endure. Shame, but that was the way of it.

She opened the door back up. "After you."

He curtsied in thanks, and then re-entered the office with Buffy right behind.

"Hmm. I expected heroes to have more stamina," he spoke so Veronica would hear.

"We do, we just save it for people who're up to the challenge."

Veronica stretched and waved her arm like a kid hoping to be called on by teacher. "Ooh! Ooh! I am, I am!"

"My kingdom for a webcam," lamented Logan before moving on to his apology.

 


	12. Twelve

Inside Veronica's LeBaron, they could hear steady rain pelting the windows and the top. Both the passenger and driver seats were reclined as far as possible, and the occupants were doing a little roaming, a little kissing, and a little moaning. Sometimes all at once, if they were feeling adventurous.

This went on for a solid, ten minutes, until Veronica remembered there was something she had to be doing.

"I'm on the clock," she told herself, and reluctantly put the seat up. "Be vigilant, Veronica."

She slapped herself in the face, and then told Buffy, "No more stakeouts for you. Irresponsible things tend to happen. 'Irresponsible' being obvious code for 'Thank you, Jebus,' but still. I'm a professional."

Buffy sat up as well, smiling. "Are you really on the clock if it's pro bono?"

"In this case? Yes. 'Cause it pays to stay chummy with lawyers. Even if the title just _barely_ manages to apply when talking about Cliff," answered Veronica, grabbing her camera and pointing it out the window once she lowered the glass. "But he's helped me out before, so, this'll make us square."

"Helped you...not your dad." Buffy noticed the word choice. "So if you're returning a favor...then you're gonna P.I. again? Does your dad know this?"

"He only has himself to blame; when he put us to work in the office last month, my addiction was rekindled. Mama liked her taste," grinned Veronica, watching the house and waiting for the target's car to show. "And _you're_ the one who said we each have our calling. Nobody's attracted to a flip-flopper."

"I'm not flopping," Buffy swore. "I'm just finding out if I need to have an elsewhere once you tell...or you wait too long, and he catches you."

"Uh-uh. If I go down, you go down. In every relationship, gotta take the good, and ya gotta take the bad." Veronica then reddened considerably. "Question. Did that sound how I think it did, or is it just the heat?"

Buffy thought it better to agree wordlessly, then promptly change the subject.

"Uh...what are your birthday choices for tomorrow?"

"Know me as well as you boast, then you already know the answer," Veronica offered not at all helpfully.

Buffy shook her head. "You so suck."

"Didn't seem to bother mere minutes ago...curious," smiled the suck-er wryly.

"Unless you want me caving to my irresponsibleness, pick new words," warned Buffy, reddening herself. "And thanks for the extra pressure. It's gonna be really motivating. I mean, now there's no chance of me going crazed trying to come up with something."

"You're welcome." Veronica's expression hadn't changed.

The car was pulling into the driveway.

She quickly slouched. "Ixnay...make like a ninja."

Buffy reclined back out of sight. Veronica got some shots of the license plate just so she could confirm a match later, and then some as the car door opened. The driver's umbrella poked out first, but wouldn't open. She grinned at her good fortune. There'd be nothing obstructing the face.

A frustrated woman appeared. Snap. The neck brace was on. Snap. She ran to her front door. Snap. And yanked off the brace. Money shot. Massaged her neck. Bonus.

"Piece'a cake," Veronica declared, rolling up her window.

"That, you're definitely getting," Buffy said as her girlfriend reclined and joined her, placing the camera on the backseat. “Tomorrow.”

"Tomorrow's tomorrow. Now is now. And the meaning of life is 42,” the re-detecting Veronica stated.

Buffy looked at her strangely. "I knew jumping off the couch when we were four was a dumb idea. 'Specially for you, 'cause I think you landed on your hea--"

"Don't make me podcast it." Veronica shut her up then melodramatically demanded, "Kiss me already, you slow-witted, slaying fool."

" _Slow-witted_?"

Veronica groaned. "Buffy, I swear..."

"Not a huge order-taker," responded Buffy with a harrumph. "And I don't take _any_ from insulting people."

"I'm not a people, I'm a person. Uno," Veronica pointed out, showing how her girlfriend's personal code wouldn't technically be violated in this instance.

"You win this round, McFartsy," Buffy grumpily conceded, getting in a dig.

They resumed from where they'd left off.

 

________

 

After dropping off the photos to Cliff the following morning, they had work. During a break, Buffy got Krista to stick a candle in one of the Hut's fine slices of cake, and then all of Veronica's co-workers sang "Happy Birthday." Once the attention was off, the birthday girl sat at a table with Buffy and ate her cake.

"I hate public bursts of a cappella," said Veronica. "Especially when directed at me."

"Know you do," Buffy grinned.

"I know you know." Veronica roughly gathered some cake onto her plastic fork, and held it in front of Buffy's face. "Comin' outta the gate a little weak."

Buffy shied away from the food.

But Veronica insisted, "Eat it. Eat it and choke on your amusement."

"Veronica?"

She turned around, and who was standing there?

"Duncan?"

"Is that Buffy?" he asked with surprise.

"Hi, Duncan," Buffy waved rather weakly.

"Uh, hi," he said back. "How've you been?"

"Fighting evil. You?"

Okay, awkward.

Veronica interjected, getting up from the table. "Um, did you wanna...talk?"

"Kind of," he nodded.

Veronica turned to Buffy with a look that said she really didn't want to do this, but her words were reassuring. "Be right back."

She led him to a quiet corner. "I haven't seen you around this summer."

He took a deep breath. "Yeah, it's been kind of complicated. You know, parents on trial--Mom and Dad finally had enough. They've moved up to the Napa house for the duration...at least till this blows over."

"But you came back here?"

"I don't want to transfer to a new school for my senior year. I have the Presidential Suite at the Neptune Grand," he smiled slowly.

She smirked. "Of course you do."

Then she made the decision to do this like tearing off a Band-Aid. As she stood there, that spark just wasn't in the air anymore. Lilly was right. Or, her dream facsimile was.

"Listen, Duncan--"

"I broke up with Meg," he cut her off.

Veronica closed her eyes and sighed. "Wish you hadn't said that." She responded to his confused look with, "I'm with Buffy now. We're...together."

"Oh." He was kind of dumbstruck, but then it hit like a Mack truck. " _Oh_."

"If I'd seen you, I woulda told you, but, I didn't, so..." She shrugged.

Pregnant silence.

"When did you two, uh...?" he finally asked.

"While ago."

"And you're, y'know...?"

"I am." And her smile supported what went unsaid. "Beg Meg to take you back, Duncan. Hands and knees if you have to."

"I would, except she'll think the only reason I am, is because I couldn't have you," he smiled sadly. "Which is true."

"I'm sorry," she offered lamely.

"Don't be. I was stupid to think..." He sighed heavily. "Go back to your cake."

She didn't know what else to say, so she just laid her hand comfortingly on his arm for a moment, and then turned to leave.

"Veronica?"

Hearing his voice, she faced him again.

"Happy birthday."

 

________

 

Keith wanted a quiet, birthday dinner at home because tomorrow he'd be leaving to begin his book tour. They got takeout from Luigi's, and enjoyed fine helpings of lasagna and manicotti. Then more singing. Most of the night was spent watching old videos of past birthdays and poking fun at themselves. Presents were also given.

Her dad's gift was a new camera (perhaps his way of saying he knew she was going to need one more frequently). Buffy's gift was a pink T-shirt that said in garish, glittered letters, "Daintily Butch." It was surrounded by black-petaled flowers.

Veronica's reaction? "It's just like you to get something for yourself on my special day."

The real gift was a photo album of all the pictures they'd taken since they got together. And if that wasn't enough, framed 5x7 versions of "The Look" photos. Keith helped Buffy find the original negatives, and she had them blown up.

Veronica's reaction to that? Watery-eyed smooching, followed by a grinning, "How's redemption feel? 'Cause that's what you've earned."

"Kinda like your lip gloss, actually," grinned Buffy back at her. "The saying's right--it’s totally rewarding on its own."

"Sure that isn't 'virtue'?" Keith had asked.

Buffy just got quiet.

When it was getting late, he said his goodbyes and gave his parental speech about safety and taking care of the apartment in his absence. He went to Alicia's to sleep; she was driving him to the airport in the morning, and his suitcases were already there.

For Buffy and Veronica, the night was still young.

Following directions, Veronica drove them to an old movie theater hidden in the middle of town, where they met Mac and Wallace. The plan was a midnight double feature of "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" and "The Goonies." Veronica very nearly had a joygasm.

"My uncle's the projectionist," Mac said when Veronica wondered how the hell they pulled this off. "You know how they're supposed to send the reels back to the studio? Well, he always conveniently forgot. Should see his collection, really."

It was like the two films that had the biggest impact on her--one from her childhood, and one from her teen years--were finally coming together to send her off into adulthood. And this would be her first time seeing them on the big screen.

"Buffy, this was, is...actually making me forget how to speak. Enjoy this rare moment," Veronica said as they took their seats. "Thank you."

Buffy just smiled. "Happy birthday."

Everyone took on roles and quoted both movies as they happened. Occasionally, Wallace and Mac pulled double-duty, because the girlfriends were in a dark theater, and when in a dark theater, it was an unspoken rule that young couples had to make out. They couldn't break it, nor did they want to.

 

________

 

It was a little past 3:30 when they got home, and they weren't tired at all. In fact, they could hardly keep their hands off each other. It was unplanned, but not unexpected. They went with it, letting nature take its course, and at 4:17, they'd finished having sex for the first time. Sweaty, exhausted, and sated, they lay in Veronica's bed.

Her voice was rather husky. "Damn. Happy birthday to _me_."

Buffy giggled. "It's been over for like four hours."

"Technicality," Veronica argued, playing with a couple strands of her girlfriend's hair. "For a couple of novices we--"

"--knew about doing?" Buffy finished. "We really kinda did."

" _And how_." Veronica craned her neck so she could see her clock. "Made good time."

Buffy said in faux-concern, "What if it was beginner's luck? I’m just thinking."

Veronica sighed as if she was about to undertake a chore. "You know only one thing could erase all doubt."

Buffy sighed as well. "Yeah..."

"All right, this time," Veronica said as she rolled on top with a grin, "try not to frighten Backup? Or hey, if you want him barging in again..."

"You shoulda locked the door," Buffy passed the buck. "And I wasn't who was loud."

"Is it nice in your delusion?" Veronica queried. "We'll just see abou...hoo, hey there."

Her girlfriend's hands were moving again.

"Holy flurking schnit, Kodos," she exclaimed.

When all was said and done, they decided they were both pretty loud.


	13. Thirteen

It was amazing how fast time apparently flew when you added sex to the relationship. No, really. Because between that, the dates and the friends, it suddenly became the end of August. They were awaiting Joyce's knock, signaling that Buffy had to go back to Sunnydale.

Wallace and Mac had given their well-wishes yesterday on the beach, and Keith had called to say goodbye. He'd be back home in four days. They wondered if he could tell that they'd been sexually active.

But that was just crazy. Crazy and paranoid. What was even crazier, was Dick Casablancas being right again--summers on Mars _were_ hot.

"What're we moping for?" Buffy asked suddenly. "We're gonna see each other; we're gonna talk to each other."

"But the sex is gonna be next to nil," pouted Veronica. "Weird isn't it? Once you've had, you wonder how you ever went without."

"Guess it's like, if you don't know what you're missing, then it can't be missed," Buffy posited. "But since we _do_ know...a lot..."

Looking at each other, they whimpered.

Veronica sucked it up. "At least we had Bennigan's once."

Buffy threw a pillow at her girlfriend from her end of the couch. "Stop with the past tense!"

"See? Cynicism, right on schedule. It's been waiting to come up for air, and it knows you're leaving," Veronica groused. "Goes downhill from here. Oh, you'll pine, but pining turns to boredom so easily."

She didn't stop. "It's like the end of 'Titanic.' She says she'll never let go, but thirty seconds later? Leo's dead weight at the bottom of the Atlantic. Holding on and burying the poor bastard was the _least_ she coulda..."

Buffy knelt on the floor in front of her girlfriend. "I can't believe you're making me." She swallowed down her gag reflex, and went for it. "You had me at 'hello,' but you'll keep me at 'goodbye'."

"' _Jerry Maguire_ '?" Veronica asked in horror, between laughs.

It was her turn to throw a pillow.

"It was short notice! I thought it was pretty good considering," said Buffy in her defense. "But he didn't say, Renee Zellweger did."

"Doesn't exactly win you many recovery points," Veronica had to say. "Renee Zellweger's like..." She couldn't think of it. "Well, the end of that simile has to be less than flattering. Bank on it."

"Ooh, got it." Buffy smacked the couch cushion in triumph. "Goonies never say die...and neither will we."

"Heart-tugging _and_ nostalgic. Much better," Veronica smiled. "Just overlay some Lauper, and then stick a fork in it. 'Cause it'll be done."

Buffy sat beside her. "We're gonna be okay; there’ll be zero boredom. We just have to focus on staying rut-free. Remember, support system."

"And if you die, I shall be very put out." Veronica mined "The Princess Bride" for that one. "For true. So don't."

"You either."

They kissed as the knock came.

Buffy smiled. "Great summer, huh?"

"Great summer," concurred Veronica, though they were saying something else.

Leaving the couch, Buffy grabbed her duffel off the chair as Veronica answered the door. Joyce, and twelve-year-old Dawn, were standing there.

"Hellos" were exchanged, and then Veronica said, " _Thank god_. Get her out of here. Passed my breaking point a week ago."

Buffy's tongue shot out at Veronica; Veronica's did the same.

"This place is totally worser than our house," Dawn said to her mother.

As Buffy passed Veronica to stand with her family, Veronica whispered to her, "She's cute as ever."

"You ready?" Joyce asked her eldest daughter, taking the duffel.

"Just gotta do one more thing," said Buffy.

She went and hugged her girlfriend tight.

While embraced, Veronica spoke, "Thanks for running away."

"Thanks for being home."

Those lines were all original.

Veronica followed the Summers family outside, where Joyce said, "Oh, tell your dad I bought his book. Read it in one sitting."

"So it was either a page-turner, or..."

"Definitely," Joyce assured before hugging Veronica herself. "Thanks for taking care of her. Bye, honey."

Then they separated.

"Bye, Mrs. Summers; bye, Dawn."

The girlfriends purposefully didn't say goodbye. They just smiled at one another, and then Veronica watched the family until they left the complex.

She could hear Dawn ask, "You guys seriously kiss and stuff? Yuck."

Crap. She had to get to work. Unfortunately, life didn't wait for Veronica Mars to be ready--it just kept going.


	14. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The epilogue takes place after S3 of BtVS, and during the S2 finale of VM, "Not Pictured."

It had been a long year for Buffy Summers and Veronica Mars. For Veronica, it began with a bus crash. For Buffy, with the arrival of Faith--the latest slayer--and sudden return of Angel from Hell. But it was May now, and they'd survived.

Buffy, Willow and Oz were sitting in the bleachers with Keith as Neptune High's graduating class of 2006 received their diplomas. Elsewhere, Xander was on a road trip of personal discovery, and Angel and Cordelia were pursuing their destinies in Los Angeles.

Willow cheered at Mac's name being called, as Buffy talked to Keith.

"This is way less 'life and death' than our graduation," she exhaled, willing the memories gone. "Thanks for letting my mom stay with you guys, Mr. Mars."

"Was more than happy to," he smiled at her. "What exactly happened?"

"The Mayor turned into a giant snake, ate the principal, and we blew up the school with him inside," Buffy nonchalantly explained.

He blinked. "You know, for my senior prank, we just let a potbellied pig loose."

Then Veronica's name was called. Their conversation was put on hold for insane amounts of clapping, hollering, and whistling. When they sat back down, it continued.

"I actually think Neptune's mayor might be worse." Buffy still couldn't believe it. "He really molested some of those kids on the bus?"

Happy, pleasant, "Aw shucks!" Woody Goodman, owner of burger joints and the Neptune Sharks baseball team, had become mayor in the election. But through the Marses investigation into the bus crash, after many leads and avenues, they exposed him as a child molester, who'd for years taken sexual advantage of the boys on the little league teams he'd coached.

It was his sponsored field trip to Sharks Field that put the bus full of kids which crashed, on the road in the first place.

"The audio file Veronica downloaded from Woody's computer proves it; they talk about confronting him. So not only did he molest them, he most likely arranged the crash so they couldn't tell anyone. Innocent men rarely flee town on their private planes," said Keith. "Plus, Woody was treated for Chlamydia. And when I checked his medical records against the kids'?"

"They were treated too," Buffy filled in the blank. "That's..."

She couldn't even come up with the word.

"That's why I'm leaving right from here, and tracking him down. I have a good idea where he went," he told her.

"I hope you catch him."

They looked back at the ceremony just in time to see Weevil being arrested by Lamb. Weevil had discovered that a traitorous PCHer named Thumper was the one who killed Felix, for a family of drug dealers known as the Fitzpatricks. He set Thumper up for a fall, and was now taking the heat for it.

Lamb, being the jackass he was, probably enjoyed hauling Weevil off to jail before the kid could graduate. Buffy and Veronica were both watching, feeling so bad for him.

Keith spoke again. "Oh, um, I got two, plane tickets for New York. Hotel reservations, too--it's Veronica's graduation gift. I was gonna make a father/daughter trip out of it, but...I think you could use a vacation more than I could. Why don't you go in my place? I'm old--I'd only slow her down."

Buffy's eyebrows went up. "Seriously?"

"Yes, I'm seriously old. The baldness is a dead giveaway," he wisecracked. "Take her, have a good time. Be eighteen. But, responsibly."

 

________

 

After the ceremony, Keith gave them the tickets in the parking lot, and then went to bust the bad guy. And while Willow and Oz got a ride from Mac to the Neptune Grand where the post-graduation party was, Buffy and Veronica were still sitting at the school, inside Veronica's car. They needed a minute.

Alicia had come up to them saying that Wallace had flown off to Paris to find his girlfriend, Jackie. Veronica called that girlfriend and took care of it, then told a quizzical Buffy it would take too long to explain. She seemed to accept this.

Keith and Alicia had broken up earlier in the year. It was over a mess involving Wallace's biological father--who she didn't tell her son or Keith about--coming into town. Every time Veronica had to see Mrs. Fennel, it was a little strained.

So Buffy moved on to good news. "Willow and I got into Hearst."

Veronica squealed in shocked happiness. "Is that my leg you’re pulling? What about--?"

"Faith's holding down the fort," Buffy answered the half-question. "She's gonna stay with my mom. I mean, I'll still visit on holidays like every other normal college student, and help with apocalypses and all, but...I'm Council-less. I can do whatever I want."

Faith and Buffy had had a rocky friendship that almost became an avalanche, when Faith mistakenly killed a human being on patrol. A team from the Council wanted to deal with her in not the most delicate of ways, but thanks to Veronica, Buffy had had a hired P.I. watching them. She’d known what they were up to.

After stepping in, she convinced her sister slayer that she wouldn't have to deal alone. Then they started their friendship fresh. When Veronica had met Faith, her eyes were drawn to two breasts that made hers extremely envious.

"And Oz?" she asked, wondering what Willow's boyfriend was going to do.

"Goes where Willow goes," responded Buffy.

Veronica hugged her with abandon. "That is so what I needed to hear right now. Couldn’t imagine anything cheering me up, but, turns out I was wrong. Which is nice, because when I'm right? The results are rarely positive."

Buffy frowned. "I can't believe the trial went like it did."

Thanks to his smarmy lawyer, Aaron Echolls was acquitted on all charges. Lilly's murderer walked out of the courthouse a free man. It was sickening.

"Wanna know the other high point?" Veronica questioned rhetorically and sarcastically. "When it was announced to the whole courtroom--which contained my father, don't forget--that I'd had Chlamydia. And do I get how _that_ occurred? No."

She'd only found out when she went for the checkup for college. Wouldn't have known otherwise.

"I know I didn't get it from you, and you didn't get it from me because...why didn't you get it from me?"

"It’s a 'slayer' thing. Our bodies fight off just abou..." Buffy trailed off, something registering. She paled. "Veronica?"

"What?"

"You didn't sleep with Woody Goodman, did you?" she asked hollowly.

Veronica stared at her like she had multiple heads. "Nooo...I think I'd recall if I..." Then she paled too. "Oh god. One of the boys he molested..."

"...raped you at Shelly's party." Buffy didn't want to say those words, but there they were. "Duncan must've come in after."

Veronica started the engine. "There's one kid on Woody's little league team with Peter Ferrer and Marcos Oliveres," Two kids that were on the bus, "I haven't ID’ed yet. But I know where to look."

She reversed the car.

"Then I can go throw up. All over again."

 

________

 

They'd gone to Woody's burger joint to check the team photo on the wall. In the caption, where it said "Not Pictured"? Cassidy Casablancas' name was there.

His story last year was that he'd been in a room with Veronica during Shelly's party, but left without doing anything. That was obviously a lie. Not only did she know he was her rapist, but she now knew he had motive to crash the bus.

On that audio file she'd gotten from Woody's computer, Marcos and Peter were talking to someone who didn't want them to confront Woody. But that someone had edited themselves out.

Cassidy wouldn't want Woody outted, because that would make his life harder than it was already. He was emasculated by everyone who knew him, especially his older brother. They all called him "Beaver," for crying out loud.

Now on the way to the Neptune Grand, Veronica thought back to days after the crash. A dead man had washed up on the beach, her name written on his palm. He used to be a stunt coordinator--whose specialty was rigging vehicles to crash and/or explode--but in his final years? He'd been a mechanic to the rich. That included Cassidy's father.

Veronica called one of Cassidy's few friends to make sure, and she was right. Cassidy could’ve learned how to make and rig all kinds of explosives. Even the kind you'd only need a remote trigger to activate, like a cell phone.

He, his brother, and other 09ers followed behind the bus in a limo back from Sharks Field. Cassidy would've easily dialed the code, and crashed the bus at the exact right moment to make it go off the cliff. Then when the ex-coordinator figured out what Veronica was, Cassidy killed him and wrote her name on his hand so the police focused on her.

The pieces all fell into place so fast, it was almost too much. But they had to hurry. Cassidy was at the Neptune Grand with Mac. He'd gotten a room.

 

________

 

"But I thought he broke up with her?" Buffy asked as they ran into the lobby where the party was in full swing.

"They got back together." Veronica was trying Mac on her cell for the eighth time. "Why isn't she answering?"

She was starting to panic.

"Why isn't who answering?" Willow asked, having seen them come in, so she walked over.

"Willow!" Veronica was very happy to see her just then. "Where's Mac?"

"Um, she went with Cassidy," Willow blushed. "I think they're gonna..."

Veronica cursed under her breath and marched to the reception desk. Logan came over to Buffy and Willow, noticing Veronica's agitated state.

"What's goin' on?"

His concern was genuine. He'd come back from the brink this year, and learned he wasn't quite the lost cause he'd thought. It was just a shame that he had to break an innocent girl's heart to turn himself around. But she hadn't been as innocent as Willow.

"Yeah," Willow said, "why's she so upset about Mac and Cassidy?"

"Because he could be..." Buffy saw Dick approach and stopped explaining. She joined Veronica at the desk. "What'd she say?"

"'Do Not Disturb.' Calling's blocked, and she wouldn't give up the room number." Veronica didn't know what to do.

She started to write a text message.

"Wait!" Buffy objected. "What if he reads it?"

"Time's sort of running out. If it hasn't already," Veronica told her desperately. "Do I have another choice?"

She sent it as Buffy thought about options. If the slayer "intimidated" the receptionist, security would come, ruining any chance they had of helping Mac. If they said someone was about to be murdered, the receptionist would think they were disturbed or drunk and call security. Seconds were precious, and slipping away.

Veronica received a response.

"Meet me on the roof. Now."

 

________

 

She knew the text message was fishy. She suspected Cassidy, as did Buffy. But here was the thing about Veronica: she needed to confront him. Confront her rapist, confront the murderer, and get him to confess. It was worth the risk to her life, which most wouldn't understand.

Even Buffy only partially did. She and Veronica had done what they said they were going to do. Phone calls and visits. She'd listened to the survivor's guilt (fate seemed to keep her girlfriend off the bus), listened to her say she thought she'd been the reason for the crash, and held her when she got the chance, telling her it wasn't her fault.

Buffy kept her focused, told her to keep digging, to keep looking for other explanations. It was only through being spurred on that Veronica didn't collapse and let pessimism overtake her. She didn't know what she would've done without her girlfriend, and now she'd solved the case.

Of course she was going to personally nail the person responsible for killing eight people and an unborn child. Meg Manning, her friend and Duncan's estranged girlfriend, had been pregnant and on that bus. Veronica needed to do this for Meg, herself, and him.

Duncan hadn't known he was a father beforehand. In the resulting depression, he'd almost killed himself. After he failed, he dropped off the face of the earth. No one knew where he was.

He was much better at running away than Buffy, who insisted on going to the roof as well. Veronica acquiesced, but made her promise to stay out of sight unless it was absolutely necessary that she not be.

 

________

 

On the roof, Cassidy confirmed everything. Even added that he'd put a bomb on Woody's plane. He heard from Corny at the party, before he took Mac up to the room, that Keith had caught Woody and was taking him back to Neptune aboard that rigged plane.

He gave Veronica a chance to call her father before he blew it up. Wracked with tears, she got no answer. Meanwhile, Buffy tried to sneak up, to do something, but he heard her.

"I know what you are," he'd said, "but if you come any closer, I will blow her brains out. Not even you're fast enough to stop a bullet. And this," he pushed the "Send" button on his phone, "is already done."

The three of them watched Woody's plane blow up over Neptune. Veronica completely broke--he'd just killed her father.

Buffy felt a rage and hatred more intense than she'd had for any demon, even the Master, and he’d drowned her. While Cassidy was distracted by the beauty of his handiwork, Buffy charged and tackled the boy to the ground.

He lost the gun, and she easily overpowered him. He looked up at her, wanting her to end his life. And she wanted to. So much.

"Buffy, get off of him," Veronica had said.

She'd composed herself enough to grab the gun. Guess where it was pointed?

"Veronica, no. Bad. Think," said Buffy, forgetting Cassidy and approaching her. "Please."

"You were going to!" Veronica exclaimed. "He raped me! He killed all those people on the bus! He killed my father!"

"I know,” Buffy acknowledged. “But he isn't Aaron Echolls. No one'll give a damn what his name is; they'll only care about what he did. He won’t get away with it, I promise."

Reaching her hand out, she guided the barrel down. She held her sobbing girlfriend as Cassidy had moved to the edge of the roof.

"Beaver--!"

"My name is _Cassidy_!" he wailed pitifully. "But it's like you said...no one gave a damn."

He jumped.

 

________

 

The good news? Mac was alive. She wasn't at all okay, but she was alive.

Cassidy had answered Veronica's text message with her phone while she was in the shower. They'd tried to have sex, he tried to be a man, but he couldn't perform. Before going up to the roof with a gun and her cell phone, he took Mac's clothes and the sheets, and dumped them.

When Veronica found her, Mac was naked and shivering beside the bed, holding herself in a ball.

Her friend asked, crying, "He took everything...why would he do that?"

Veronica had had no answers.

Back at the apartment later, the girlfriends sat curled up together, numb. They didn't even react when the TV said Aaron Echolls was found shot execution-style in his hotel suite. They just thought of Keith, and cried.

And somewhere along the way, Veronica thought about Buffy. How much it meant that she was here now. How much she cared. How Buffy brought out the best in her personality.

She thought about their proms, and how thrilled she was when Buffy's peers gave her a "Class Protector Award," followed by an ovation. Veronica had hugged her in the hallway, Buffy overwhelmed by it all. She thought about the trip to Sunnydale for Buffy's birthday, going on patrol, and the intense fear she felt when a vampire nearly killed her girlfriend.

Veronica had staked her first and only demon that night, saving Buffy's life. That was when she knew if Buffy ever died, there'd be no way she could deal with it. She'd gotten tough once and made it through, but then Buffy showed up and got her to let down her walls. A second test of her resolve would make them unbreakable.

Or shatter her. To feel dependent on someone to that extent, to feel dependent at all, frightened the hell out of Veronica Mars. But the benefits of what they had were still more powerful than the scariness of "what ifs."

"I love you." She just said it. Felt like it needed to be.

"I love you too," responded Buffy in kind.

In an ideal world, those sentiments would've been expressed under happier circumstances, but this world wasn't ideal. What was important was that they meant it.

They thought when they finally got there and couldn't avoid it, they'd doom themselves. Because if you admitted to loving someone, you were only going to get burned eventually. That's just the way it was.

But they were only words. Whether the girls acknowledged it or not, they'd been in love for a lot longer than tonight. With the words spoken though, at least they fell asleep on the couch feeling a little less empty.

 

________

 

In a couple hours, the front door opened, waking them.

It was Keith--they couldn't believe their eyes. Lamb had apparently gotten him pulled off the plane at the last minute, because he didn't want his old boss greeting the media, looking like the hero again. Lamb's ego had saved Keith's life.

There was some kind of ironic twist to be found, but who cared? Veronica hadn't lost her dad. That was what she clung to.

A weekend and a day passed, and then Veronica and Buffy--in high, carefree, Hearst-bound spirits--were on their way to New York for an entire week. Yes, they did leave their hotel room. They had pictures to prove it.

You were blind if you couldn't see "The Look" in every single one.


End file.
